Little Wind
by Raberba girl
Summary: Aqua & Terra, working as partners on a school project, find a strange child who may or may not be an alien. In any case, little Ventus grows REALLY fast, and now it seems like he's become the target of otherworldly attackers...
1. It Hatches

Little Wind

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Aqua & Terra, working as partners on a school project, find a strange child who may or may not be an alien. In any case, little Ventus grows REALLY fast, and now it seems like he's become the target of otherworldly attackers...

A/N: This fic has some serious flaws, but I'm not going to point them out in hopes that no one else will notice and/or care about them. Though, if you do notice them, please do point them out, since it's always possible that something escaped my notice.

**This may **_**start out**_** as a cutefic, but will take a dark turn later on.**

**Chapter 1 - It Hatches**

_"No matter what the time, I'm just alone, destiny forgotten, even though I kept going. Inside of the sudden light, I awaken in the middle of the night."_

o.o.o

The drawback to scoring the hottest girl in school as a partner for the folklore project was that she also happened to be a brainiac. Which meant that not only were the two of them spending Friday afternoon at the public library instead of, say, on a date, they stayed so late that they actually got kicked out at closing time.

"I am dead serious, Aqua! You owe me!"

"I owe you ice cream for trying to make sure that we get our project done on time? That's ridiculous, Terra."

"No, it isn't, since if we'd stuck to _my_ plan, I'd be the one treating you right now." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Aqua blushed a little and looked away. "I - I told you before, I'm not interested in dating right now."

"Aw, come on, let's grab some fast food for dinner, at least. Sure is late enough...no thanks to you, hot stuff."

"Please watch your language around me," she said coldly. Terra laughed and raised his hands in a conciliatory way.

Street lights began to flicker on as they walked down the road. Aqua lived in a classier part of town than Terra was used to, and there was not a lot of traffic.

"All right, tell you what. I'll buy dinner _and _the ice cream this time, and tomorrow we can just stay one hour at the library instead of, like, five."

"I have to get home. I can take it from here, thanks."

"It's no problem. We've already come this far, I might as well walk you the rest of the way home."

"Thank you, but I can manage."

It occurred to Terra that she might not want him to know where she lived. "Man...all right, well...I'll see you around, I guess." He saw her expression change just before he turned away: her eyes widened, and her mouth came open a little in surprise. "What is it?" He looked around, but could see nothing out of the ordinary.

"That shooting star! It-"

Terra grinned. "Did you make a wish?"

Aqua did not respond. She pushed past him and started to run back the way they had come, but suddenly swerved and began climbing over someone's backyard fence.

"Whoa! Whatever this is, don't leave me out of it!" He hurried after her.

They found it fairly quickly. The thing was egg-shaped, roughly a meter long. It had fallen into someone's flower bed, where it lay giving off a sparkling light.

"What is that?" Terra exclaimed. "A UFO?"

"It fell from the sky," Aqua murmured. "I saw it - at least, I think I did. It almost looked like a person before..." She shook her head. "Maybe this is something else."

"Whatever it is, it's cool. Hey, let's use it for our project!"

"Eh? Wait, what if it's dangerous, or belongs to someone else?"

"What, you're just gonna leave it here?"

"Well, no, but..."

The shining egg was heavier than it looked - Terra was sweating by the time they reached Aqua's house. He dumped it on her front porch with a sigh of relief, rolling his eyes when she admonished him to be careful. "It's fine, Aqua."

He wasn't, though, when he looked down and found his clothes, arms, and hands covered with glittery powder. Biting back a curse, he heartily began dusting himself off as Aqua went to fetch a wagon to make carrying the egg thing easier. "Wonderful! Now I look like Cinderella." He gave the egg an exasperated look. "You are cramping my style, you know."

"Leave the poor thing alone, it's had a hard day." Aqua came back around the side of the house, tugging the wagon behind her.

Terra grinned. "Getting attached to the UFO already, are we? For all you know, it could be some alien machine, and not an egg at all."

"Can't you hear it crying?" Aqua said quietly. Leaving him to ponder that, she crouched down to try to heave the egg into the wagon.

Terra was quick to help her. Now that he was concentrating on the egg itself rather than on trying to impress Aqua, he could almost tell what she meant now. The egg's warmth had a sort of agitated feel to it, and the shell seemed to pulse a little under his fingers, like a heart beating too quickly. "Easy, little guy," he murmured. "We're gonna get you somewhere nice and safe."

Aqua shot him an amused look as she rolled the wagon through her living room and over into her bedroom.

Terra looked around with interest (she had cheerful blue wallpaper, a frilly blue bed, and lots of books), but at a snapped command from Aqua, he remained obediently in the hallway. "All right, I won't come in. It's not a crime to look, though, is it?"

"I suppose not," she said haughtily, though her cheeks were flushed. Terra could not see why, since (slightly to his disappointment) there weren't any undergarments lying around or anything.

He watched as Aqua made a sort of nest for the egg out of blankets. Its light, which had been shining brightly and swirling through subtly different shades of color, began to dim until it reached a steady, contented glow. Terra swore he could practically hear it purr. "Hey, Aqua...you sure about this? I can...I can take it with me if you-"

"No thanks, I'll be fine," she assured him. "Go on home, Terra. I'll meet you at the library tomorrow."

Terra sighed. "Yeah. Great."

o.o.o.o.o

A chipper sound broke through the morning stillness. The only reason Terra even considered responding was because the number was Aqua's. As it was, he groaned and made a feeble move to press the answer button on his phone, but his hand felt rock-heavy, and he fell asleep before he had quite made it there.

The cell phone rang again exactly ten minutes later. Terra yelled into his pillow and slammed his hand on the button, just barely managing to lighten the tone of his voice in time. "Man, the school genius is slipping if she thinks it's smart to call a guy at eight o'clock in the morning on a weekend."

_"I waited until a decent hour,"_ Aqua's voice protested, _"and then I waited another hour. Are you really still in bed?"_

"Of course I am!"

_"...Oh."_ She sounded distressed.

Terra was suddenly worried. "Hey, the egg didn't blow up or anything, did it?"

_"Um..."_

He was instantly alert. "I'll be right over."

_"Thank you, Terra,"_ she said. There was genuine gratitude in her voice.

o.o.o.o.o

None of Terra's wild imaginings prepared him for the sight of Aqua opening the door with a small child in her arms.

"Whoa!"

The tiny boy, in response to Terra's surprised expression, hid his face against Aqua's shoulder and burst into tears.

"Hey, hey, little guy! Terra ain't gonna hurt ya, see?" Terra rested his hands on his knees to make himself shorter and put on his most charming, reassuring smile. The child peeked at him uncertainly through a fringe of honey-brown hair. The boy's fists tightened their grip on Aqua's shirt, but at least he stopped crying.

"Will you please come in?" Aqua said in a strained voice. "Don't worry, my parents will not get back from their trip until Wednesday."

"Cool." Terra stepped over the threshold, still riveted by the sight of Aqua and the child. "So...you baby-sitting or something?"

Aqua looked uncomfortable. "He...hatched."

"He-? Wait a minute, you mean that egg-thing hatched into this kid?"

"It's been a long night," Aqua admitted, sinking down into a chair with the boy still in her arms. Terra finally noticed the dark circles under her eyes. "He grows fast, and I don't know if he sleeps. I need to, though. Terra...could you maybe, please...?"

"Huh? Oh! Sure, I'll keep an eye on him for a while."

"Thank you - thank you so much," Aqua burst out, with such desperate gratitude that Terra's eyes widened.

"You could have called me earlier, you know!"

"I didn't want to bother you..."

"Forget it! This is important."

Terra turned his attention to the child, holding out his arms invitingly. "C'mere, little guy."

The boy let out a gasping squeal and latched back onto Aqua.

"Aw, come on, I'm not that scary!"

It took several minutes to pry the child off of Aqua, and then he screamed and cried so loudly that she looked torn, her arms poised uncertainly as if to take him back.

"Go on to bed, Aqua," Terra said above the noise. "He'll be fine." Terra actually wasn't so sure, though - especially since ten minutes later, the boy was still crying, wedged into his hiding place behind the sofa.

Terra was currently trying the tempting sweets tactic. "They look sooooo yummy, don't they?" he crooned, on his knees on the floor with a few small chocolates resting on his palm. "You can't resist, little buddy!"

Actually, the boy seemed to be quite skilled at resisting temptation. He simply huddled there with his huge solemn wet eyes fixed on Terra.

"I'm not gonna hurt you!" the young man exclaimed in exasperation. "You know what, here. I give up." He rolled the chocolates to the boy's feet and then sat back on his heels with a sigh. "Didn't realize I was such a monster."

He went to flop down on the sofa and turn on the TV. He stared at the images on the screen without seeing them, his mind instead on the strange little boy, and on Aqua. The beautiful, serious young woman had taken compassion on the egg at first sight, nurtured it, and dealt with things alone when the tiny, needy creature had entered her life. She had not called for help, even when she had obviously needed it, even though he had been with her when they found the egg, all because she did not want to cause him trouble. "She's really something, isn't she," Terra remarked.

Then he must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew, he was groggily cracking open his eyes and there was the boy, clutching empty chocolate wrappers in his fist and staring straight at Terra with ridiculous solemnity.

"Whoa!"

At Terra's start of surprise, the boy dashed around to hide behind the sofa again - except that he could not now, for one of the very reasons that had startled Terra so much. The child was now noticeably bigger, with slightly more defined features and a less wobbly gait. He did not fit behind the sofa anymore. So that's what Aqua had meant by growing fast.

"Hey, not-as-little-guy. You want a cooler hiding spot than that?" The coaxing started again, and this time the child responded cautiously, shying away from Terra's actual touch but otherwise riveted.

Terra walked backwards toward the sliding door that led to the back yard, making encouraging noises as if to a nervous puppy. "That's it, this way, come on, now..." For the first time, he thought he saw a hint of loneliness in the boy's expression, a longing for fellowship. "I'm not so bad, right? I'm actually a nice guy, you know."

Outside, the boy seemed to change a little. His shoulders straightened, and his eyes drifted past Terra. For a long moment, he stood gazing at the sky. Then he looked back and actually smiled.

"Good morning, kiddo," Terra said happily.

They resumed walking, the child now more willing to follow Terra's lead. He allowed himself to be boosted up, and made some deft scrambling motions of his own as they made their way onward. A few minutes later, Terra sat on the roof with a pleased smile, watching as the little boy tottered back and forth across the shingles and made happy cooing noises. "Told ya you'd like it up here."

The boy raised his hands into the air, his honey-hued spikes ruffling as he swept his arms in a waving motion and made whooshing sounds.

"Wind, yeah. It's a little stronger up here."

The child spread his arms out, closed his eyes, and twirled around in a circle. Alarmed, Terra shot out a protective hand, but the boy's footing was perfectly steady. "Just like a little wind sprite yourself. Say, you got a name, kid? Because if you don't, I got an idea for one."

o.o.o.o.o

Aqua lay with her eyes closed for a minute, trying to figure out what urgent matter was nagging so hard at her sleepy brain. There was something she needed to remember, some matter to take care of...

"Oh!" She sat up with a gasp. "The child- Terra-" She looked wildly at the clock and realized that Terra had been stuck baby-sitting for quite a while, rather than the single hour she had intended. "Terra!" she yelled as she stumbled out of bed, untangling the sheets from her legs and hurriedly combing her fingers through her hair. "Terra?"

They were not anywhere in the house. Aqua started to panic in earnest, then heard a thump from above. Dashing outside, she soon spotted both boys crouched on the roof. "Terra!" she shrieked in outrage. "You took a toddler up _there_?" She managed not to add aloud, _'How irresponsible ARE you?'_

The young man looked over at her. "He's fine," Terra said defensively. "He likes it up here a lot better than in the house."

There was no time to say anything else. Upon seeing Aqua, the little boy babbled with delight and - jumped off the roof.

Aqua screamed. Terra threw himself forward on his stomach, but his grasping hands missed by a hair's breadth. Aqua instinctively raised her arms to catch the boy, bracing herself for him to thud heavily into her.

Instead, amid the strong wind that suddenly whipped up, the child's fall slowed and he almost _drifted_ into Aqua's arms, light as a feather. The wind immediately died down, and the boy smiled up at Aqua as he patted her face.

There was a long pause. Finally, Terra said, "Weird kid we've got here, right?"

"How did...?" Aqua murmured weakly.

Terra awkwardly jumped off the roof, stumbled, straightened, then came over and ruffled the little boy's hair. "Oi, Ven, give us some warning next time you're about to do something crazy, okay?"

Aqua glanced at him in confusion. "Ven?"

Terra shrugged, coloring. "Uh...well, you know, it's like what I found in that book yesterday, about our names meaning stuff in Latin...earth and water. _Ventus_ means wind. The kid seemed to...like the wind, you know." He added hurriedly, "This was _before_ he decided to jump off the roof."

Aqua looked back at the child, whose big blue eyes met hers with trusting solemnity. "Ventus," she murmured. Then she smiled. "It's perfect."

Terra beamed.

"But you are still not allowed to ever be alone with him again!"

"Hey, he's fine, isn't he?"

Little Ven was still growing fast. By lunchtime, he was speaking in rudimentary sentences, asking "Akaw" for more milk and demanding that "Tewa" do the sticking-the-spoon-on-his-nose trick again.

"Aqua," Terra asked at one point, "what are we gonna do with the kiddo when we go to the library? Take him with us?"

Aqua looked surprised. "We're still going to the library?"

He gaped at her. "Wh...Why did you say that? You just made me look _studious_!"

She frowned. "I mean, of course schoolwork is important, but now that we have to take care of Ventus..."

"He'll love the library. Won't you, Ven?" Terra grinned at the little boy, who smiled back brilliantly.

"Tewa!"

"Ven!"

"I wuv Tewa!"

"And I wuv Ven! Ven go wiff us to wibwawy, okay?"

"Okay!"

"Ven want to go to wibwawy?"

"Wibwawy!"

"Don't baby-talk at him," Aqua snapped. "It's not good for his development." As Terra laughed, she leaned forward earnestly. "Library, Ventus. It's _library_."

"Wibwawy?"

"Not 'wibwawy,' _library_."

The child's face was now scrunched in intense concentration. "Raiberry."

"Li-brar-y," she enunciated carefully.

"Rai...bwa...ry."

"That's much better! Listen carefully, Ven." Aqua gave him some chocolate when he successfully pronounced the word, which he ate happily as the older two cleaned up. Then Terra left the house to retrieve his notes as Aqua searched for something better to dress the child in than the thing he had arrived in. It was already far too small. She had had to cut off the parts that were supposed to enclose his feet, and she could see creases on his skin where the edges were pressing into him too tightly.

"You know, Ven, I think we're going to have to go clothes shopping before we head for the library."

She called Terra to let him know the change of plans, then set off for the closest thrift store with the little boy in tow. He clung willingly to her hand, though he tended to get distracted often by birds, passersby, potted plants, and anything else that caught his fancy. Cars seemed to frighten him. Every time one passed by too close, he gripped Aqua tightly and hid behind her.

"It's all right, Ventus, don't be scared. Almost there, see?"

Once they had arrived, she was tempted to stay for hours, since it was so darn _fun_ dressing him up in outfit after outfit as if he was a life-sized doll. The child, however, was restless, and soon grew tired of the constant costume changes.

"All right, all right. Hold still, Ven, just let me fasten this, it will be the last one." She ended up buying the adorable corduroy overalls he had on, as well as lots of other pieces in increasingly larger sizes. It cost pretty much all the munny she had in her wallet, but she wanted to be prepared.

"What do you think, Ven?" Aqua directed the boy's attention to a mirror, kneeling down to put her hands on his shoulders. "You're such a handsome young man," she said fondly. Ven studied their reflections seriously. Then, for no discernible reason that she could see, he suddenly gasped and backed into her.

He vanished.

Aqua barely managed to suppress a shriek. She stared at the mirror, shaking, where only her own image was now reflected. Yet Ven was still _there_, right in her arms, clutching her hard as he stared over her shoulder at something.

Spooked, Aqua looked back, but could see nothing out of the ordinary. Ven buried his face in her shoulder and began to sniffle fearfully. Aqua looked back at the mirror, still flabbergasted: there she was, staring white-faced at herself, and there Ven was not.

Her arms closed around him protectively. "Oh, Ventus..." She picked him up and rushed out of the store, her thoughts in an amazed whirl.

She was still shaken by the time she got to the library, though the sight of Terra waving cheerfully at her from the front steps had a calming effect. Ven, though no longer looking terrified, had nevertheless gone subdued and clingy, greeting Terra with nothing more than a small, shy smile.

"What's up with you guys?"

"Um...slight mishap at the clothing store," Aqua mumbled.

Terra peered more closely at the boy. "Huh! Looks like you got some new duds, eh, buddy?"

"Tewa good," Ven said solemnly.

"Haha! Well, you're lookin' sharp now, kiddo." Terra ruffled the boy's hair and then turned back to Aqua. "So, what's the plan? You think Ven'll be okay inside, or should we check out a pile of stuff and study out here?"

"We can see how he does inside for now," Aqua said, a little nervously. "He might like the picture books."

Terra shrugged. "Okay, cool."

Fortunately, Ven seemed to do very well in the library. They had tried settling him down with some picture books in the children's area, but as soon as he realized that Aqua was walking off toward the nonfiction shelves with a paper in her hand, he immediately ran after her, clinging to her skirt until she took his hand and brought him along. He gently ran his palm across the spines of the books on the shelves, watching as Aqua pulled out volume after volume and stacked them in Terra's arms.

"All right, I think that will do to start with."

"To _start_ with?" Terra gasped in disbelief, struggling to maintain his grip. "I wasn't planning on spending all day here, you know!"

"Terra, we've got other responsibilities now," Aqua snapped, glancing briefly at Ven. "There is no telling when we'll get a chance to finish this project, so we need to get as much done as we can as soon as possible."

He sighed. "Fine, fine..."

They spread the books over an entire table. Aqua began sifting through volumes, calling out information and page numbers for Terra to write down, or pointing out passages that she wanted him to copy. He followed her lead good-naturedly, since he was, after all, getting away with what was essentially gruntwork. Ven sat at the same table, paging through books just like Aqua and making random scribbles on paper like he thought Terra was doing.

Or, perhaps, not so random. "Whoa...Aqua, take a look at this."

She glanced up. Terra was holding out a piece of paper with a strange look on his face.

"Ven drew this."

"Hm?" Aqua studied the picture, frowning. "That...almost looks like our school crest, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. And this thing here...I don't recognize it, but doesn't it seem like it could be a symbol, too?"

"...Maybe."

They both looked at Ven, who was now studiously drawing flowers.

"Hey, not bad, buddy," Terra praised. "So a tough guy like you can make really pretty flowers, eh?"

"Fowa," Ven mumbled absently. He finished the last scribble and then showed the picture to Terra, smiling. "Faiwie."

"Faiwie?" Terra repeated, smiling in bemusement.

Aqua was frowning at the picture. "Ven...are these fairies?"

"Faiwie," Ven confirmed. He added another mark to one of the winged scribble-balls he had depicted floating among the flowers.

"Fairies. And flowers." Terra shook his head. "That's cool, but come on, man, how about some dinosaurs or ninja or something?"

Ven cocked his head in puzzlement. "Nija?"

"I'll show you!" Terra scratched out a black shape on a fresh sheet of paper.

"Is that a horse?" Aqua asked dryly.

"It's a ninja!"

"Nija!" Ven repeated happily. Slamming his pencil down on Terra's picture, he added a long pole-like object sticking up from the ninja's head, and some dark scribbles where the two met. "Nija. Nija dead."

Aqua and Terra gazed at the picture in growing, disbelieving horror.

"Did...did he just...kill my ninja?" Terra said faintly.

Ven's pencil was still moving. He made a circle for a head with two mismatched eyes, and dark lines for a body. Then huge wing-like shapes emerging from the figure's back. An arm, stretching out grotesquely to grasp the pole (sword?) that had slain Terra's ninja.

Ven looked up at them solemnly. "King."

Terra swallowed. "So the king killed my ninja, eh?"

Ven reached for another piece of paper and began drawing again.

Terra and Aqua scooted down to the far end of the table and leaned close to whisper to each other.

"Aqua, you think we maybe bit off more than we can chew, here?"

"It's possible that he is not really a child," she whispered back. "Or that he's been...reborn. That he had some other life, before he came to us. We know nothing about him, after all."

"You can say that again."

Ven looked up, came over, and tugged urgently at Terra's shirt. "Nija faiwie."

Both Terra and Aqua looked apprehensively at the picture. A passable imitation of Terra's ninja, this time with wings, was clasping hands with the king. Both were smiling.

"So I gotta be a fairy if I wanna stay alive, eh?" Terra said wryly.

"Ven," Aqua asked, pointing to what looked like a box with a scribble in it near the king's feet, "what's this?"

The boy looked where she was pointing. "Ven."

"Yes, what is it, Ven?"

He cocked his head. "Ven." He pointed at the scribble-box. "Ven."

Terra made a choked noise.

Aqua's mouth felt dry. "You mean...that's you? In the box?"

"Dark." Ven picked up another piece of paper and pushed both it and the pencil at Terra's chest. "Tewa, take Ven home."

"Uh...what?"

"Nija take Ven," the boy insisted, starting to look upset.

"You want to...go home?"

"Terra," Aqua said, "draw a picture of the ninja saving Ven, letting him out of the box. Keeping him safe from the king," she found herself adding.

"Um..." Self-consciously, his fingers not quite steady, Terra drew his ninja again (this time with wings), opening the box. He did his best to draw Ven as a little fairy, arms spread wide in happiness. He firmly drew a big fat smile on the face of the king, and then added lots of big hearts for good measure. "There. Everyone's free and happy and we all love each other, right?"

Ven was staring at the picture in fascination. He pointed. "Red."

"They're hearts, Ven. It means that everyone's happy, and they get along."

Ven stared at them. Then he suddenly climbed into Aqua's lap, pressing his head against her chest.

"Ven?" she said in surprise.

The boy smiled. "Not boken." He clambered over into the other lap, putting one hand on Terra's shoulder to steady himself as he listened to his heartbeat as well. "Not boken!" Ven stared at them in excitement, pressing his hands over his own chest. "Akaw an' Tewa not boken!"

"Bokken?" Terra wondered.

"Broken," Aqua translated shakily. She drew Ven back into her arms, hugging him. "Everyone has a heart, Ven. Everyone's heart beats to keep them alive. We use our hearts to love each other, and care for each other."

Ven closed his eyes. "Ven not dead," he sighed contentedly.

Aqua and Terra stared at each other for a long time. Then she leaned forward and said to him in a low murmur, "I need to show you something." Hesitantly, she raised the back of Ven's shirt until his shoulder blades were exposed. The boy stirred uneasily. "These were there when he hatched. I think I know what they are, now."

Terra stared at the two lumpy scars on the boy's back. "He was _born_ like that?"

Ven squirmed uncomfortably and clawed at his shirt. Aqua pulled it back down and patted him soothingly. "What do you think they are?"

"Aqua, don't tell me the kid's an actual fairy."

"I don't know, but he is _something_. He could very well have been something with wings."

By the time they left the library, Ven was noticeably bigger and had dropped the baby-slur in his speech. "We goin' home, Aqua?" he asked, holding both their hands as they walked out into the afternoon sunshine.

"If you want, Ven," she said, "but I was thinking that we could stop somewhere for a snack, first." She looked significantly at Terra. "At least, if someone treats us." She did not have much munny left after the shopping trip earlier.

Terra raised his free hand. "All right, it's on me. Where do you wanna go?"

Aqua smiled down at the little boy between them. "Somewhere with a playplace, maybe. Ven will like that."

Ven cocked his head at her warily. "I will?"

He was so adorable that Aqua bent down to kiss him. "Of course you will, all children like to play."

"...I wanna play with you and Terra."

Terra laughed. "I think we're too big for a kids' playplace, buddy. Aqua, what do you say we grab some ice cream or something and eat in the park?"

"Sounds good to me," she agreed.

"What's a park?"

He was so darn _cute_! "A place with lots of grass and trees, and maybe a fountain," Aqua explained. "You really will like it, Ven."

"It's got a playground, too," Terra added. "One we're not too big for." He laughed again. "Mostly."

Ven's hands gripped theirs convulsively.

"What is it, Ven?" Aqua asked. She looked up.

A car was heading straight for them, veering to the side of its lane and then, to Aqua's horrified shock, actually jumping the curb when it got close. Her eyes met the driver's. The man had bright golden eyes and a large scar on his face, and was grinning wildly. Aqua felt paralyzed.

"Look out!" Terra shouted.

"NO!" Ven raised his hands. The car suddenly crashed to a halt right in front of them, its bumper crumpling as if it had hit an invisible wall. Steam drifted out from under the hood as the driver opened the door.

"What do you think you're _doing_?" Terra raged, instinctively picking up Ven and pushing him into Aqua's arms before marching over to the guy. "You could have killed us!"

"That was kinda the idea, bro," the man said easily.

Terra gaped at him. "Who _are_ you?"

"As if. I don't hand out my name to mortals." The man turned away dismissively, his creepy golden eyes falling hungrily on the child. "Hey there, tiger. Though I guess they call you Ventus here, eh?"

Ven broke into tears. "Go away."

Aqua's arms tightened around him protectively. "We ought to call the police," she growled.

"Try it," the man scoffed. He held out a hand. "Come on, Ventus. Your daddy's been looking _all over_ for you."

"GO AWAY!" Ven shrieked. He raised his hand. A fierce wind suddenly whipped up, blowing their hair into their eyes and causing the man to rock back a step.

He looked up again, still with that creepy smile. "So you wanna play, tiger?" He held out his own hand.

Instinctively, Terra dashed forward, putting himself in front of Aqua and Ven. Then he yelled as he suddenly found himself dangling upside-down in midair. Aqua cried out, looking terrified, as Ven clung to her tighter than ever. "P-Put him down!" she gasped.

"Hmph." The man swept his arm through the air, and Terra went flying, landing on the pavement a short distance away. There was an audience by now - people were staring, some of them taking pictures, others speaking quickly into their cell phones.

The golden-eyed man looked around at all of them, for once seeming uneasy. Then he shrugged. "Stay out of dark alleyways, _Ventus_. Otherwise, the bogeys might get you." He held out his hand again, to the side this time, and a vaporous black mass appeared right there on the sidewalk. He stepped into it and vanished, along with the dark portal.

Aqua stared, frozen, at the place where he had been. The crushed car was the only remaining evidence of his presence. She only snapped out of it when Ven began to struggle. As soon as she put him down, he ran to Terra, who was cradling his arm.

"Terra!" Aqua cried, flinging herself down beside him. "Oh, no, this is terrible!"

"I'm okay," Terra mumbled, both at her and the passersby who were inquiring after him in concern.

"Your _whole arm_ is bleeding!"

"Just scraped it across the pavement, I'm fine." Terra looked down at Ven, who was clinging to him and sobbing into his shirt. "Hey, little buddy, I'm okay! Come on, now, you don't have to cry."

"Terra, I'm sorry," the boy wailed. "Terra, I'm sorry..."

"Dude, you're not the one who made me eat concrete." Terra pushed Ven upright and smiled encouragingly as he wiped the tears away with one hand. "What do you say, Ven? Give me a smile, and I'll buy you some ice cream, okay?"

Huge wet eyes stared up at him.

"Not a big enough bribe, huh. Well, then smile for me and I _won't_ tickle you."

Ven was soon rolling on the ground in hysterical laughter. He managed to get clear and then ran to hide behind Aqua, staring at Terra from over her shoulder with an uncertain smile.

Terra grinned back. "Better."

"Enough of this," Aqua said impatiently, getting to her feet and reaching to pull Terra to his. "We need to take care of your arm before it gets infected."

"Ah, you're making too big a deal out of it, I'll be fine." He did, however, follow her willingly to the nearest pharmacy, where he tried to keep up Ven's spirits by telling lame jokes as Aqua washed the blood and grit off his arm. She slathered medicine over the injury and even untied one of her sashes to use as a bandage, which made him blush.

"Can't afford Band-Aids, huh?"

"I can't, actually," she muttered. "I've been buying a lot of clothes recently."

Terra stared at her, then at Ven. More precisely, at the boy's new outfit, which was already way too short. "Oh."

Despite Terra's best efforts, Ven was still too dispirited and nervous to enjoy the park very much, and they ended up going home (Aqua's) after only a short time. Aqua set up a Disney movie for Ventus, then made herself comfortable at the coffee table with Terra and piles of papers and books, since Ven would not stay put if they tried working on their school project in a different room.

The child would not settle down at first, getting freaked out in turn by Snow White's wicked stepmother, Maleficent's spooky debut, and the horrified realization that Cinderella's father was _dead_. Finally, Terra dug through Aqua's DVDs and decided on _Robin Hood_ as the most harmless. "Because no way I'm gonna afflict you with this _Tinker Bell_ spin-off atrocity, little buddy."

"The third movie's not bad," Aqua muttered, fussily sliding the Tinker Bell DVDs back onto the shelf with the others. "Now, can we _please_ get back to work? At this rate, I'm not even sure we'll finish in time."

"Ah, you worry too much, Aqua."

They were finally able to make some progress for a while, as Ven lay watching the movie with his head in Aqua's lap, and Terra dutifully copied down everything he was told to. By about six-thirty in the evening, however, Ven was getting cranky (as well as bigger), and Terra was evidently at his limit.

"We've been working _all day_, Aqua! Let's wrap it up and do something fun."

"Like what?" she huffed, trying to re-do the buttons that Ven had defiantly unfastened on his shirt.

"I don't know...go clubbing or something."

Aqua shot him a Look.

Terra rolled his eyes. "Whatever; go out for coffee, take Ven to McDonald's, see a movie- play a board game, for crying out loud! Anything!"

Aqua sighed. "I need to grab some bigger clothes for Ven. Then we can have, I don't know, a game night or something."

"Yes!" Terra crowed. "I'll take what I can get!"

Once Ven was dressed in the biggest outfit Aqua had procured for him earlier, Terra offered to take him out to pick up some pizza and snacks so that Aqua could have a break. She very reluctantly agreed ("Just...what if that man with the scarred face shows up again? And don't think I've forgotten about you taking Ven up to the roof!").

Soon, the boys were walking hand-in-hand to the nearest pizza place. The hand-in-hand thing was not Terra's idea, but Ven had latched onto him as soon as they had left the house and refused to be dislodged. It was a little difficult to keep an even pace, since Ven insisted on walking too close together, but the boy was not entirely timid. He looked out at their surroundings with inquisitive eyes, occasionally asking Terra things like why the cars were different colors and why it was not okay to sniff the doggie's butt if it was sniffing his.

"Well, because...there's...nothing interesting. There. You know."

They eventually made it to the pizza place, specified their order to be delivered directly to Aqua's house, then moved on to a convenience store. Terra handed a shopping basket to Ventus and told him to pick out what he wanted. Ven stared uncertainly at the rows and rows and rows of colorful packages, then handed the basket back. "I want whatever you want."

"Trust me, little dude, you don't want what I want. Unless you _like_ Red-Hot Chili Zingers."

"Do they taste good?"

"_Oh_ yeah."

"Are they sweet?"

Terra laughed.

Just then, something bumped into him. Terra turned around to find a young boy regaining his footing, rubbing his head sheepishly. "Gee, sorry, mister."

"That's okay," Terra said with a grin. "Just keep an eye on where you're going, all right?"

"Okay!"

Terra frowned. He looked around to find Ven clutching him with a death grip, staring at the other boy with huge eyes. Alarmed, Terra looked back at the child who had bumped into him, but there did not seem to be anything suspicious about the kid. He was a good-looking boy, with spiky brown hair and brilliant blue eyes, and such a sweet smile that Terra wondered what in the world Ven saw in this creature to be afraid of.

The boy noticed Ven. "Hi! I'm Sora. What's your name?"

"Go away," Ven whispered.

Terra frowned. "Ven? What's up with you?"

"Aw, don't be silly," Sora said cheerfully. "Let's be friends!" He set his hands on Ven's shoulders and leaned in close as if to kiss him. Ven hurriedly turned his face away so that the other boy's lips landed on his cheek.

"What the-?" Terra exclaimed. This Sora kid was kind of weird. "Hey, I think you better-" He broke off in shock. The boy's lips had left an imprint on Ven's skin, like a burn mark. "Oi!"

He reached to pull the kid away from Ven, but was not expecting Sora to catch his wrist in a grip that seemed incongruously strong. Their eyes met. "Stay out of this," Sora said coldly.

"Leave Terra alone!" Ven shouted, shoving Sora away.

Sora shoved back. "If you don't want me to break your human pet here, you'd better do what I say, Ventus."

"Oi," Terra said again, very firmly. "This has gone far enough. You need to-" He was reaching to remove the boy's hand, but then suddenly gasped. Sora had seized both his wrists and twisted them in a vicious grip so that Terra suddenly fell to his knees, pain shooting up his arms.

"Someone's going to die right now, Ventus," Sora said, his voice now complete ice. "Either you or your pet human, take your pick." Then he grinned in a way that made Terra's flesh creep. "Actually, you're going to die anyway, whether your human does or not. I refuse to live without you any longer, you've run from me long enough. It's time you met oblivion like you were supposed to."

"Let go," Terra gasped. He tried to pull away, but the pain made him double over. _'This kid can't be more than five or six years old!'_ he thought frantically. _'How is he doing this?'_

As if that wasn't enough, innocent little Ven now grabbed a long wooden cooking spoon off a nearby rack and stabbed it hard at Sora's face.

"Ven!" Terra cried out, utterly shocked.

Sora barely even reacted. He kept standing there with that creepy ice smile. Something was happening to him, though - the color of his hair seemed to be flaking off where Ven had struck him, bits of brown crumbling to black. Even the tan on his face had peeled off a little in the blow's wake, revealing a small strip of much paler skin. One eye was still the exact same shade of blue as Ven's, but the other eye, miraculously uninjured, was now a chilling gold.

"You're one of Them," Terra breathed.

Ven went for Sora with the rod again, but the creature knocked it out of his hand and shoved him to the floor, pinning his arms.

"No! _No!_ Please!"

Terra could not stand the sound of Ven's screams. Barely registering the lingering soreness in his wrists or the savage stinging in the injury he had sustained earlier, he brought his fist down hard on Sora's back.

Sora did nothing but glare over his shoulder with that freaky gold eye of his, but nearby customers were putting up a fuss, shouting for management and calling the police. Terra realized that he needed to end this encounter fast and get Ven out of here. Ripping Aqua's sash from his arm, he wrapped it around Sora's neck and pulled hard; thankfully, the creature raised its hands to grip the sash, allowing Ven to wriggle free. Wasting no time, Ven ripped open a bag of salty chips and shoved it into Sora's face.

To Terra's great surprise, the monster-kid, who had not batted an eyelid when being attacked in the face with a wooden spike, screamed bloody murder as the snacks scraped over his flesh. Ven lunged at Terra, shoving him with all the panic-driven strength of his little arms. "Run away, Terra! _Run away, Terra_!"

Dropping the sash, and noticing distractedly that his arm was bleeding again, Terra snatched up Ven and scrambled to his feet in one movement, pelting for the exit. He knocked aside everyone who tried to stop him, and did not stop running until they had reached Aqua's front porch.

She had not even locked the door. "Aqua!" Terra bellowed as he stormed inside. "Keep this door _locked_, do you hear me?"

She came out of the kitchen, looking surprised and indignant. "Don't speak to me that way." Her eyes widened when she saw Ven crying. "What happened?" She rushed over, taking Ven into her arms and making soothing noises.

"Some little freak attacked us at the convenience store," Terra growled. "Aqua, you ever see a cute kid named Sora, kill him."

"_What_?"

"That wasn't Sora," Ven sobbed, his arms tight around Aqua's neck. "Don't hurt him, Terra! That wasn't Sora...that wasn't...Sora..."

He wailed, and Aqua patted him, making shushing sounds. "Calm down, baby, it's okay. Terra, please explain."

She listened closely as she soothed Ven and re-bandaged Terra's arm. All three of them jumped when the doorbell rang. Ven ran around behind Aqua and clung to her, terrified. As Terra went to go answer the door, he picked up a poker that had been propped by the fireplace and gripped it like a weapon, but he was extremely relieved to find that their visitor was only the pizza deliveryman.

"Hey, didja hear about that ruckus over at the QwickStop a little while ago?" the chatty young man asked as Terra dug around for his wallet.

"Nope, not a thing," Terra mumbled.

"My girlfriend works there, said some lunatic came in and attacked a couple of kids, like, twenty minutes ago - just down the street, see it there? You can see it if ya come out here and stand on the edge of the porch, hard ta miss with all them police lights flashin'-"

"I owe you ten munny, right?" Terra said loudly, waving the orbs.

"What? Oh, yeah. ThankyouforchoosingPipin'Hot,weappreciateyourbusiness. Anyway, the guy ran off with one of them kids, and the other kid disappeared without a trace - DISAPPEARED, they were sayin'! Can't find hide or hair of 'im anywhere-"

"Can I have my pizza now?" Terra asked pointedly.

"And you wanna know what the weirdest thing is? The _weirdest_ thing is they don't even have a recording of it! The security cameras just went white - not staticky or black, mind you, there was this big white _flash_ so that you can't see a thing, who the guy was or anything-"

"Thanks so much. Good night." Terra shut the door firmly and brought the pizza back to the coffee table, dumping it down with a disgusted look. "I can't believe that guy..."

"He was extremely unprofessional, but we did get some good information from him. Do you think anyone at the store might have recognized you?" Aqua asked.

"Nah. I'm from...a different part of town, you know." Terra shook his head. "Anyway, I'll eat the first piece. Wait a little bit and see if I keel over dead or something."

"You think it's been poisoned?" Aqua exclaimed.

"I dunno, after that Sora thing-" Terra glanced at the sniffling Ven. "I mean, that not-Sora thing, I'm getting paranoid."

The pizza appeared to be perfectly fine. Terra and Aqua munched on it halfheartedly as they began playing Command Board, their appetites low even after they had started getting into the game. Ven only managed to get down a few bites, spending the rest of the game huddled in Terra's lap and dolefully nudging his game piece along whenever it was his turn.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Aqua suggested, as Terra's hand hovered over an intersection.

He glanced at her. "You don't even know what I'm planning to do."

"Since it's a choice between landing on a Special panel or a Damage panel, I have a pretty good guess."

Terra moved his game piece to hover over the Special panel, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Aqua sing-songed.

"Hmph. You're just trying to psyche me out." Terra placed the piece down and drew a Special card. "Gah!" He slammed the card back down, this time facing up. It had a picture of Captain Dark on it.

Aqua giggled. "I told you so."

"How did you know? You must have peeked! Or memorized the card order!"

"Of course I didn't. It was woman's intuition."

"Yeah, well, 'woman's intuit' what I'm gonna do next." Terra spent the next few turns chasing Aqua around the board, trying to surpass her far enough to leave her stuck with Captain Dark. Ven did not even crack a smile.

Aqua finally sighed, reaching over to cup his face in her hand. "Cheer up, sweetie. Terra and I will keep you safe, we won't let anyone hurt you."

"But I don't want them to hurt you, either," the boy said in a low voice. "Vani said he'd kill Terra. I don't want that to happen."

"Hey, I'm tough," Terra insisted, even though he was also uneasily remembering the way that fake kid had so effortlessly overpowered him. "We can take care of ourselves...and you, too."

Aqua eyed him, remembering how helpless Terra had been against that golden-eyed man, but she did not want to say anything discouraging in front of Ven.

"Don't die," Ven mumbled, his face half-hidden. "I love you."

"We love you, too, sweetheart," Aqua whispered. Such a strange situation this had turned out to be, but even so, she meant those words with all her heart.

Ven seemed all right until late that evening, when Terra started getting ready to leave. Then the boy nearly had a meltdown until Terra finally agreed to stay the night. As Ven watched anxiously, Aqua set up the sofa-bed in the living room, pushing the coffee table to one side and bringing out some clean sheets.

"Are we all going to fit?" Ven asked doubtfully, surveying the size of the bed as he clutched Terra's hand.

Aqua blushed, and Terra burst into laughter.

"Honey, I'll be in my own room," Aqua mumbled. "Boys and girls our age don't sleep together."

"Oh, don't they?" Terra said mischievously. Aqua smacked him.

Ven was looking panicked again. "No. No, Aqua, you have to stay. Don't go away!"

"I'll just be down the hall," she said soothingly. "You can come with me, if you want."

"Terra, too?"

"N-No, Ven. Terra's staying here in the living room, and I'll be in my bedroom."

"No! We have to be _together_!"

"Eh, looks like Tantrum Time," Terra remarked.

In the end, the boys got the sofa-bed and Aqua set up a cot for herself close enough for Ven to reach over and grasp her arm when she lay down.

"Don't go away when I fall asleep," he told her.

"I won't," she said in exasperation. "Good night, Ven."

She and Terra had both meant to get up again after putting their young charge to bed, but the boy was so restless that it finally became more trouble than it was worth to fight his anxiety. In desperation, Aqua finally began to sing softly to him, the same song she had used to put him to sleep when he had been a baby. _"Quietly, stand in the exit way, and, in the pitch-black, take the light..."_

"You have a nice voice," Terra whispered.

Aqua blushed, unable to answer without breaking the song. _"The light known as 'you' finds me, in the middle of the night..."_ She fell asleep sooner than she expected, with Ven's fingers still around her arm and his breath ruffling her hair.

_To be continued..._

Author's Notes: *deletes paragraph about me not getting Terra and Aqua 100% in-character, oh noes the world is ending oh-em-gee*

Aqua's lullaby is the theme song of _Kingdom Hearts_ (and _Birth by Sleep_), Hikaru Utada's "Hikari," in case you didn't know. (Same for the chapter quotes.) It's the Japanese version of "Simple And Clean."


	2. High School

_**Little Wind**_**, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter 2 - High School**

_"The future is always before us. Even I don't know it."_

o.o.o

On Sunday morning, Ven woke up looking to be about ten or eleven years old. He peered blearily at the cot nearby, then straightened with a jolt when he realized that it was empty, the bedding neatly folded. He flopped over in a panic, but blew out a relieved breath when he saw Aqua, already freshened up for the day, moving about in the kitchen. Terra was sprawled over more than his share of the bed and snoring peacefully.

With a small, relieved smile, Ven climbed to his feet, wrapped a blanket around himself, and padded into the kitchen. "Good morning, Aqua."

She returned the smile, reaching over to ruffle his hair. "Good morning, Ven. You're getting so big!"

He looked down, his cheeks warming a little. "Um...what you said yesterday about...um, I think I need new clothes again."

"You certainly do," she agreed. "I'll see what we can do about that once we've had breakfast. I laid some of my father's shirts on that chair over there - put one of them on and then wake up Terra, will you?"

After they were all seated and eating, the subject inevitably turned to Ven's mysterious past, seeing as he was now capable of adequate communication.

"I'm not sure," he mumbled. "I know I lived somewhere else before coming here, I just...don't remember it. I know there were lots of colors." He paused. "And a man with red hair...I kind of remember him. But that was ages ago..." He shivered a little. "Mostly I remember being trapped somewhere dark, that hurt."

"Do you remember having wings?" Aqua asked.

He shook his head. "No."

"How'd you get here in that egg thing?" Terra wanted to know.

"I don't remember. It was... The master was saying something, I don't remember what, just that it was bad. Vanitas hurt me somehow, though I don't really remember that, either. And Sora tried to help me, but I couldn't hold onto his hand, and he disappeared again. Then I just...then it was your face, Aqua. I don't know what happened in between."

"Who's Sora?" Terra asked, at the same time Aqua said, "Is your master the king?"

Ven frowned. "King?"

Aqua fetched the pictures he had drawn in the library the day before. "What can you tell us about these?"

Ven frowned as he studied them. Then he laid his fingers over the menacing king figure. "Xehanort," he said softly.

Terra and Aqua both leaned forward. "Xehanort?"

"He's..." Ven shivered. "I don't remember. I don't want to think about him."

"Does he really kill anyone who's not a fairy, or did I get that totally wrong?" Terra asked.

"What's a fairy?"

The older two stared at him in astonishment. "What? You were _drawing_ them yesterday!" Terra insisted, pointing at the flower picture. "Look!"

Ven stared. "I don't...remember." Frowning, he slowly reached for his own back, trying to feel the scars Aqua had said were there.

"What about this?" Aqua asked, pointing at the scribble box. "Yesterday, you said this was you. Like you were trapped in it."

Ven looked unhappy. "Maybe that was the dark place. I don't know. I don't know where it was, or how I got there, or why. Just that I didn't like it, and I wanted to get out."

"I really want to know about Sora," Terra said. Their half-eaten breakfasts had long been abandoned by now. "You keep talking about a Sora and a Vani. Who are they? Was one of them the little freak in the convenience store?"

"Sora is my friend," Ven said softly. "He tried to help me. I don't remember anything more than that. And Vanitas...I really, really don't want to think about him. He hurt me really bad." He put his hand protectively over his chest, looking upset.

"Let's stop pestering him," Aqua finally said. "He's obviously had a rough time, we don't need to be making things worse."

After breakfast, they went on another clothes shopping excursion. Then it was, to Terra's disbelief, back to the library, where Ven worked his way through stacks of fairy tales as Aqua continued researching their project and Terra complained that his hand was getting cramped from writing so much.

"We're almost done, Terra! We just need to put it all into a report and create a visual presentation. Here, go find some nature pictures. I'll start the report."

"Slave driver," Terra muttered. "And if that's your idea of 'almost done,' I think I need to acquaint you with a dictionary..."

"Look at this," Ven laughed. "The little elf guy is so dumb that he tore himself in two when he got mad. I don't think real fae are like that."

"Eh?" Terra exclaimed. "Disney movies scare you, but you can handle someone tearing himself in half?"

"What's Disney?"

Aqua mercilessly forbid them to leave until the poster and the report's rough draft were finished. Luckily, she eventually realized that Ven needed lunch, despite the fact that their report was still in dire need of revision. "All right, just a quick meal, and then we'll _finish up_ this afternoon."

"Woman, your heart is made of stone!"

"Don't you _want_ to be finished with this project so that we don't have to worry about it anymore, Terra?"

"My butt's sore from sitting for so long, my eyes are all swimmy from staring at tiny text, and I've got a paper cut."

"You have my sympathies," she responded briskly.

"I don't think I'm a fairy," Ven decided. "I'm too big. And I'm not an elf, because I don't have pointed ears, and I don't think I'm ugly enough to be a goblin or big enough to be a troll."

"Well, that narrows it down," Terra joked. "All that's left is alien, mutant, cyborg, werewolf..."

Ven looked worried. "So I have to look up even _more_ books?"

Aqua kissed the top of his head. "Don't worry about it, sweetheart. We love you no matter what you are."

"Just don't be a vampire," Terra remarked, "'cuz if you turn out to be a sparkly bloodsucker, I'll disown you."

"Really?"

"Terra!" Aqua scolded.

"It was a joke! ...Really though, Ven, don't be a vampire."

"What _is_ a vampire, anyway?"

They went to Terra's house for lunch, since his parents were getting suspicious of him being gone for so long. There was some awkwardness about Aqua _not_ being Terra's girlfriend, and an inquisition about Ventus.

Terra confidently clapped his arm around the boy's shoulders. "Ven's my little buddy. Aqua and I're lookin' after him for a while."

"I see," Mrs. Bane said with a frown, studying the boy closely. "Ven, was it? Who did you say your parents were?"

"...Axel. And...Larxene," Ven said, wincing. The names had just popped into his head, but he felt vaguely uneasy about using them. However, even though he felt like Terra and Aqua were his parents, it seemed somehow even more dangerous to say that.

"Axel and Larxene? That doesn't sound familiar. Did you all just move here?"

"Uh..."

"Ven is my cousin," Aqua said firmly.

"And Aqua is my classmate," Terra added smoothly. "So we're like one big family."

His mother sighed. "Well, I've held you up long enough... Come along into the dining room."

They did not dare stay too long, for fear Mr. and Mrs. Bane would notice Ven's unusual growth. Terra actually used schoolwork as an excuse for them to escape as early as possible, though when they went back to Aqua's house, he somehow managed to draw Ven into a game of football as Aqua got the report into shape.

"Ice cream!" Terra declared as soon as she appeared in the doorway, an automatic defense against the stormy look on her face. "My treat! To celebrate the completion of our darn project and our first real date!"

"It's not a _date_," Aqua snapped.

"Aw, come on, Aqua. How else am I gonna get to see you now that I can't use homework as an excuse?"

"I think that Ven is a perfectly legitimate excuse for me to have to tolerate your presence some more," she said haughtily, pulling Ven into her arms.

"So we can't even be friends?" Terra whined, wrapping his own arms around Ven so that the three of them stood huddled together.

"Maybe we can be friends," she relented. "If you keep being nice to my baby."

"Hey, he's half my baby, too."

"You weren't there when he hatched."

"I _was_ the one who hauled his sparkly eggy butt to your house."

"Guys?" Ven said uncertainly from where he was squashed between them, "What are you talking about? Did I do something wrong?"

They broke apart, laughing uneasily. "Terra's being silly, Ven," she told him.

"And Aqua's just too stubborn to admit that she's attracted to me."

"Appreciating your help with Ven does _not_ mean I'm...that I think you're...that I like-"

"You're really cute when you blush," Terra told her slyly.

"You certainly think highly of yourself, don't you!" she cried, blushing harder than ever.

To the supreme relief of all three, no golden-eyed creepers showed up at the ice cream parlor. At one point on the way back home, Ven did suddenly shy away in fright and accidentally knock over a trash can in the process, but Terra and Aqua could see nothing out of the ordinary, and he soon calmed down.

The real problem ended up being what to do with Ven the next day. "We could skip school," Terra suggested.

"Of _course_ you would want to do that," Aqua shot back. "Only as a last resort." She surveyed Ven critically. "At the rate he's growing, he could probably pass for a freshman by tomorrow morning."

"Oh, cool!" Terra exclaimed. "So we get to bring him to school with us?"

Aqua sighed. "The problem is that he won't be able to just follow us around. The teachers will notice that he does not belong, and we don't have any paperwork for him."

"You're not gonna leave me, are you?" Ven asked fearfully. He was so darn cute that Aqua hugged him, and Terra ruffled his hair.

"Don't sweat it, Ven," Terra said reassuringly. "If worst comes to worst, I'll skip class and keep you company."

"We might have to end up doing that," Aqua said unhappily, "but let's at least try to get him into class first. The principal _might_ be willing to let him stay with me if we stick with the cousin-from-out-of-town story."

Although Ven did not make nearly as much of a fuss as the night before, he still looked so unhappy as bedtime approached that they ended up repeating the same sleeping arrangements. He did, indeed, look like a high-schooler by the next morning, and although Terra's spare clothes were a bit baggy on him, he seemed pretty comfortable and did not look unduly odd.

He was cheerful at first, but the closer they walked to the school, Aqua noticed that he grew more and more fidgety. "Ven? Is something wrong?"

"...Are you sure your school is in this direction?"

"Yeah," Terra said. "It's at the corner of Dominion and Castle."

"What's wrong, Ven?"

"I dunno...I just wish we were going the other way."

At the school's front gates, he stopped and stared up, his mouth hanging open.

"_Now_ what is it, Ven?"

"That...that symbol," Ven gasped. "I know it. Why is it here?"

"What does the symbol mean, Ven?" Aqua asked worriedly.

He looked down and shook his head. "I don't know. I just..." He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. "It makes me feel cold."

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea," Aqua murmured.

Terra put a hand on Ven's shoulder. "Ven, are you gonna be okay with this? Should we go back home?"

Ven hesitated, then looked up and spoke decisively. "No. I can handle it. Let's just keep going."

When they got to school, Aqua insisted on checking in at the front office, even though Ven was just as insistent that they should not. "I _promise_ you, no one will notice me."

"Have you looked in a mirror and seen that hair of yours lately?" No amount of effort on Aqua's part had gotten those outrageous spikes to lie flat. "Trust me, they will notice you."

"Aqua...I'm telling you, this is a mistake-"

"Let's just _try_ the cousin-from-out-of-town story, for goodness' sake!"

They pushed through the double doors. The secretary closest to the front looked up and smiled. "Hello, may I help you?"

"Yes," Aqua said. "I just needed to sign in a visitor. My cousin Ventus is visiting from out of town, and he wanted to accompany me to my classes, just to observe."

The lady frowned. "Ventus?"

Terra realized that she was staring straight at him. "Huh? No, I'm Terra Bane, I'm enrolled here. This is Ven." He laid a hand on Ven's shoulder.

The secretary was now giving them a strange look. "Pardon me?"

A little exasperated, Aqua took hold of Ven and maneuvered him up in front of her. "This is Ven."

Frowning harder than ever, the secretary began typing and clicking around on her computer. Finally she said, "Ah, here you are. Aqua Reinfell and Terra Bane." She looked back at them. "I still don't understand this Ven thing. Are you saying that your cousin is at home and wants to visit the school tomorrow?"

Aqua opened her mouth, then suddenly closed it again. She and Terra shared a long look. Then she looked down at Ven, who was grinning a little impishly. She frowned and pinched him, though he went right back to grinning as soon as he had rubbed reproachfully at the afflicted spot.

"I'm sorry...never mind, we were just practicing for a- um, an improv project. Sorry to bother you." Aqua dragged Ven out into the hall and then grasped his shoulders hard. He gave a hysterical little giggle, like a child who knows exactly how much trouble he is in. "What did you _do_?" she hissed.

"What do you mean what did I do?" Ven sing-songed.

"You know what I'm talking about!"

"Um...Aqua?"

"What?" Aqua snapped, glancing impatiently over her shoulder at Terra. Then she paused.

Terra was still standing in the office doorway, staring at them with a strange look on his face. "Aqua...is Ven still with you?"

"Of _course_ he is!"

"...Aqua, come here for a second. Ven, stay there."

"Okay," Ven gasped, obviously trying hard not to explode with laughter. His expression seemed a little odd. For the first time in what felt like a long time, Aqua truly remembered that he was not human.

She went over to stand by Terra, then gasped. The hallway looked empty, except for the occasional student or teacher passing by. Ventus was _gone_. "Ven?"

"Still here," a disembodied voice called quietly.

Aqua surged forward, and there he was again. "How did you _do_ that?"

"I'm...really good at handling light," he confessed, finally starting to look uncomfortable. "I just...kind of let it go through me if I have to. It's hard to explain." He took a deep breath. "I _told_ you. No one will notice me."

He ended up spending the morning with Aqua, making plans to join Terra in the afternoon. Ven found school fascinating, particularly math, once he figured out the basics. Literature seemed to be more fascinating when he _didn't_ understand the basics. Science class rather frightened him, and it was with relief that he entered the cafeteria with Aqua and spotted Terra saving them the end of a table at the far side of the room.

"Aqua," Terra laughed as they sat down with him, "I hope you know how much it warms my heart that you made a lunch for me today with your own two hands." He had ditched his usual table, knowing that Aqua did not enjoy his friends' company and that the football team's loud antics might make Ven nervous.

"It's just a boxed lunch," Aqua mumbled, ripping hers open with undue force. "It's nothing special, I didn't even bother to give it a decent arrangement."

Terra was already chewing on his first bite. "Mmmmm, so delicious! I've been waiting my whole life for this!"

She kicked him under the table.

"_Ow_! What's with those shoes? They have, like, sharp edges!"

"This really does taste delicious, Aqua," Ven told her.

"Thank you, Ven."

"Hey, how come my compliment didn't get a 'thank you'?" Terra demanded.

Their banter continued for about fifteen minutes. Then a shadow passed over Ven, and there was a clatter as a lunch tray was dropped onto the table next to him. "Mind if I sit here, buddy?"

The three friends stared up at the newcomer. He smiled at them, beautiful blue eyes in a sweet-natured face, topped by a loveably unruly mess of spiked brown locks.

Ven began to raise his hand, a wondering expression on his face. Then he gasped in fear and flung himself away, stumbling behind Aqua and Terra.

The age discrepancy had thrown Terra off, but now he finally recognized the young man in front of him. "You! You're _not-Sora_!"

Vanitas grinned again, this time in cruel delight. His glamour melted away, revealing the golden eyes he had hidden. "Bit slow, aren't you boys." He held out his hand, into which a black sword materialized. "You're not getting away this time, Ventus."

As if they had planned it, Aqua whipped her leg up to kick at his hand at the exact same instant Terra threw himself headlong at the dark fae. Vanitas's weapon flew out of his grip as he went tumbling to the floor with Terra on top of him.

"Ven, run!" Aqua shouted. The boy needed no more urging, he fled at once.

Terra got in a couple of good punches before Vanitas shouted angrily and shoved him off. His strength was incredible - Terra was no lightweight, but he found himself sailing through the air and then coming to an abrupt, painful halt when he crashed into a vending machine. He flopped to the ground with a grunt, and looked up hazily to see Aqua seizing something and grinding it into their attacker's face.

Ever since Ven came into her life, Aqua had been doing quite a bit of reading on the supernatural in between school-related research. As soon as she had the chance, she knew to go for the extra packages of salt on her tray, which she ripped open. At the touch of the grainy substance on his bare flesh, Vanitas screamed again as if struck by acid.

"What'd you _do_ to him?" Terra gasped as they ran together for the closest exit, dodging gawking students and alarmed teachers alike.

"Salt purifies," Aqua panted, crashing through the doors. "He's a fairy - in the old sense, a fae; and a dark one, too. The touch of salt is poison to-" She broke off in horror. Terra followed her line of vision and swore.

Ven was on his knees in the middle of the courtyard, his neck cradled in the crook of a huge scythe gripped by the hooded figure who stood before him. Aqua's heart hammered in her chest as she took in the awful sight - Ven would clearly be decapitated if the scythebearer merely shifted.

They were not alone. The golden-eyed driver was watching, and he now turned at the commotion, a wide grin spreading over his face when he saw Terra and Aqua. "Well, if it ain't the mortals who thought they could hide our little teind. Bad move, idiots. Your time's up." He raised one of the crossbows he held, pointing it straight at Terra's heart.

"NO!" Ven screamed. He flung out a hand in desperation. There was a blinding flash of light, and when Terra and Aqua could finally see again, both Ven and the two black-cloaked figures had vanished without a trace.

_To be continued..._

Author's Notes: Axel & Larxene aren't really Ven's parents, they were just the first names that came to his mind.

You guys, I _actually did research_ on the phrase, "if worst comes to worst." Turns out that both versions are fine...the one I used is the original quote (and it _is_ a quote, FTR), but "if worse comes to worst" makes more grammatical sense and is more common nowadays. So...yeah, whatever. ^^;

Compliments - In Japan, it's polite to deny them and rude to accept them (considered arrogant if you do). In America, it's the exact opposite (other person feels like you're insulting their judgment if you're too modest). Since I consider all the original KH characters to be half-Japanese and half-American, Aqua gets to do it both ways.


	3. Don't Let Go

_**Little Wind**_**, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter 3 - Don't Let Go**

_"No matter what the time, we'll always be together."_

o.o.o

Terra was so angry that he could feel himself trembling, and yet so helpless that it was almost an actual pain. He sat in the front office holding tight to Aqua, who was sobbing into his shoulder with a frightening lack of inhibition. The Aqua he knew was dignified, slightly haughty, and would never have stooped to being dependent on him for anything. This girl in his arms was so overcome by grief that she no longer cared about upholding appearances.

"I'll get him back, Aqua," Terra whispered to her, not sure if she could hear him. "I promise you, I will get Ven back."

The principal came to the door, surveying them grimly. "Mr. Bane, I'll see you now."

"You can talk to us together," Terra said flatly. "I'm not leaving her."

The man looked at them for a long moment. Terra glared back, maintaining eye contact.

"Do you really want to discuss this where everyone can hear?" the principal finally asked, indicating the secretaries at work and the various people moving in and out of the building around them.

"You're not going to find out anything useful, so it doesn't matter."

The principal's mouth tightened. He seized a chair and dragged it closer so that he could sit down. "What happened in the cafeteria today?"

"I was attacked."

"From what we've heard, you were the one who attacked that other boy."

"Do you even know who that 'other boy' is?" Terra challenged.

The principal hesitated.

"You can't even find him. He just _disappeared_. You don't know who he is, and let me give you a hint, he's not gonna be in your records."

"Listen...Terra-"

"Why haven't you called the police?" Terra burst out, his anger getting the better of him. "My friend was just _kidnapped_, some freaks in black cloaks were waving SCYTHES around in the freaking courtyard, and you're not doing _anything_!"

"Terra, sticking to this story of yours won't do you any good-"

"I didn't _make it up_! Everyone SAW it!"

"Terra! We would have _noticed_ something like that - if nothing else, the students would be talking about it. The only thing we've been hearing about is _you_, starting a fight in the cafeteria and then making a scene in the courtyard afterwards. It would be better if you just-"

"Terra's telling the truth." Both of them looked at her in surprise as Aqua pulled away from Terra's shoulder, her eyes red and wet, tears still leaking slowly down her face. "He isn't making it up. I saw them, too...those people who took Ven..." She drew in a shuddering breath. "Terra, the police can't do anything. No one saw them but us. I don't know how, but...Ven's gone...no one knows he's gone but us, no one will miss him except us, and I'll...never...see him ag-"

Terra grabbed her shoulder. "Aqua, don't say that! We'll find him. We'll _find_ him! We'll...we'll search-" He broke off. He did not know what to say, found it painful to admit that he had no idea where to even _start_ looking.

The principal sighed. "Listen..."

"I need to go home," Aqua said in a low voice. "Please, sir. Let Terra walk me home."

"We're trying to get hold of your parents-"

"I have to go home!" Aqua buried her face in her hands and sobbed again, almost as if she was screaming. "I can't stay here!"

"Aqua-"

"My parents are _gone_! They're not returning home until Wednesday! Please, _please_, let Terra take me home!"

The argument lasted until Terra's mother arrived to pick him up. She consented to let Aqua come as well, though except for an awkward expression of sympathy for the distraught girl, she spent most of the car ride lecturing Terra on getting himself suspended. He said nothing, merely sat holding Aqua's hand and failing to come up with any sort of useful plan.

He hated watching her go, seeing her tear-stained expression as she got out of the car and walked up to her empty house, but there was nothing he could do. His cell phone had been confiscated and he was severely grounded - unless he was willing to defy his own mother to her face, he was trapped in his room and even barred from the Internet where he might have been able to look up something to help Ven.

He ended up cleaning his bedroom in an effort to vent his frustration after he failed at trying to exercise in the cramped space. The afternoon passed as he angrily shoveled all the dirty laundry into a pile, crammed random bits of garbage into the trash can where they belonged, organized his movie, music, and video game collections after matching them all to their cases, cleared off all the flat surfaces, and even begged clean bedsheets from his mother, along with use of the vacuum cleaner. The physical movement helped, though he found himself desperately restless again as he ate the sandwiches his mother coldly handed him through the door for dinner.

Sleep was hopeless. Now that his room was as spotless as he knew how to get it, he tried to do some homework, but found it impossible to concentrate. Finally, he flung his math book aside and reached for the noisiest music he had, cranking up the volume until his mother came marching in to put a stop to it.

"Let me call Aqua, at least!"

"Absolutely not! You are grounded, _no exceptions_, until your suspension is over!" She slammed the door shut and stormed away.

Thwarted at every turn, Terra flung himself facedown on the bed and shouted into the mattress, punching it a few times for good measure.

He thought he would never be able to sleep that night, but at 2:00 in the morning, he was jolted awake by a tapping noise. He nearly had a heart attack when he spotted a face peering in at him. "_Geez_, Aqua!"

He surged for the window, but then halted when he remembered that he was only wearing boxers. Blushing a little, he yanked on the pants he had discarded earlier and then opened the window for Aqua, who was looking like she wanted to hit him out of impatience.

"Why aren't you answering your phone?" she accused.

"Mom took it," he grumbled, pulling on a shirt. "I'm not supposed to talk to you-"

"You have to come with me, I need your help."

"-or leave my room." Which is exactly what he ended up doing a few minutes later, with no hesitation. For any other reason, he would have dutifully stayed home, but when Ven was in trouble and Aqua needed help...

They went to Aqua's house, where she shoved him into a chair and buried him in the stacks of library books she had checked out that afternoon, all about folklore and fairy tales and mythology.

"I've been finding some useful things on the Internet, but I need you to search the books while I follow up on that, I can't do them both at once."

"What am I looking for, exactly?"

"A way to get to Faerie. We're going to rescue Ven."

o.o.o.o.o

Ven huddled in the middle of the cage, as far away as he could get from his other half without having to be in constant movement.

Vanitas circled around and around, taunting, trying to get a reaction. "You know why I look like Sora, right? You know what he gave up to keep you alive after they tore me out of your soul? You know what he can't do now that they've shattered his memories and erased the girl he loves?"

Ven covered his ears. It did not help. When Vanitas spoke, it was like Ven was listening to his own thoughts.

"Hah! You think you can keep going like this, just keep drawing breath into that sorry body of yours because of other people's sacrifices. Over and over and over, so many ruined lives, just so you can keep existing. I bet even now you think it won't happen...they'll use someone else for the teind...like that guy, Axel..."

That name again. Axel. Ven found himself shuddering. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, don't you?" Vanitas snarled. He leaned close to the bars, whispering now. "Don't forget who I am, Ventus. I was there when you made that pact with Axel. _I know his true name_."

Ven shivered. The sight of it made Vanitas smile, and he leaned back. "Yeah, that's right. I've been keeping it nice and safe...after all, that's an important wild card right there. You're a lot closer to the king's assassin than you think, you know."

Not anymore. Ven barely remembered the man, just a name and an impression of red hair, of fire, of a cocky smile. And the taste of sea-salt, strangely sweet...

"Of course, that's not the only card I've got up my sleeve. You suck at keeping chinks out of your armor, Ven. So many weaknesses, like those two humans you picked up in the mortal realm. What were their names, again? Terra? Aqua?" He laughed. "I'm gonna have _so_ much fun with them once you're gone-"

"Oi, get lost."

Both boys looked around, startled, to find Axel in the entryway, surveying them with distaste. "Our boss is calling," the fire sprite added, daring Vanitas to argue.

With a sulky frown, Vanitas slammed his fist against the bars of Ven's cage and then strode haughtily out of the room.

Axel shook his head and approached. He made a strange gesture. The cage vanished and Ven tumbled to the ground, catching himself just before his face hit the floor. The king's assassin grabbed his arm and yanked him up roughly, tossing a black coat at him that was very similar to the one he wore himself.

"Axel," Ven whispered, searching his face.

"So, you remember me now," the fire sprite said bitterly. "I'm so _flattered_." He turned away, like an angry child. "Put that on. We've all been summoned."

Feeling uneasy, Ven slipped his arms through the sleeves and struggled to get the front zipped up.

Axel turned back to survey him, then frowned and yanked the hood over his head. "Wouldn't want your two new best friends to recognize you, now, would we?" he sneered.

Ven blinked. "What?" His eyes widened. "A...Aqua and Terra? Th-They _came_ for me?"

"Come on." Axel raised his own hood and then grabbed Ven's arm again, pulling him toward the door. As they walked, Ven heard him mutter some sort of glamour charm, and the next moment they looked identical - the same height, shorter than Axel but taller than Ven, with their coats now exactly the same.

Ven stopped dead, suddenly realizing what was going to happen. "No. Oh, no. Please, Axel! Don't make them do this!"

Axel turned, obviously glaring at him even though Ven could not see his face. "And why should Terra Bane and Aqua Reinfell get an exception, just because you want them to?"

"They've only known me for three days!" Ven said desperately, throwing back his hood again. "It's nearly impossible even for lovers, how do you expect them to be able to-?"

"Man, we knew you were gonna cause trouble. Hmph. Can't say I blame you. Which reminds me." Axel released his hold and produced a bespelled bracelet. "Give me your hand."

Ven backed away, hiding both hands behind his back.

"You want me to call Xaldin or Saïx, have one of _them_ put it on?" Axel threatened.

"Please, Axel," Ven whispered.

"Nuh uh. Don't pull those puppy eyes on me. I refuse to get turned into a Dusk on your account - you're not the guy I used to know." He paused. He sounded a little embarrassed as he added in a mumble, "And even if you were, I still wouldn't-"

"Don't do this to me...Reno." There was a sharp intake of breath - from both of them. The name had come unbidden to Ven's mind. He knew that he and Axel had once been close, but had not until now realized the depth of their lost friendship...and yet, if Vanitas had known Axel's true name, of course Ven would, too.

Axel swept forward, wrapping his hand around Ven's throat and slamming him against the wall. "You dare say my name again," he hissed.

Ven, unable to breathe, clawed desperately at those merciless fingers. It took all his strength just to speak a few words. "I'll...use...mine..."

Axel's grip loosened a little bit. "What?"

Ven desperately sucked air through his constricted throat. "I'll swear on my true name. Please, Axel!"

Axel said nothing.

"I, Roxas," Ven whispered, "swear that I will do nothing that will bring punishment on you, Reno." Was it enough? "If I should fail, and suspicion fall on you because of my actions, may I bur-" He was panicked when Axel suddenly choked him again.

"Shut up! Shut _up_, you idiot!" Axel's hand dropped, and his shoulders seemed to slump. Ven stared at him. "Even I don't want to see you burn," Axel whispered. Ven could just barely make out his mouth in the shadows of his hood, smiling a little. "Bad enough I let you take my place as teind, eh?" Axel shook his head. "You're really something, Little Wind. Charming people into loving you, blinking those big blue eyes of yours and getting whatever you want."

"I-"

"Shut up." Axel flicked his fingers. The bracelet disappeared and was replaced by an ordinary silver one, identical to the one Axel wore himself except that it lacked the invisible enchantment. "Give me your hand. And if you don't this time, I'll punch your snotty face and drag you out there with a wonderful black eye, how does that sound?"

Ven was already holding out his arm. He watched as Axel fastened the glimmering trinket around his wrist.

"Let's go."

The other Unseelie knights were also entering the throne room as they came in, identical figures in black coats all taking their places in a large circle, their bracelets making it seem as if the spaces between them were perfectly equidistant. Xehanort, seated on his throne, smirked at the two mortals huddled close together in the middle of the room.

Ven felt a choking sensation when he saw them. Aqua and Terra, their expressions frightened and determined, pieces of the human world looking horribly wrong in this dark fey court, trapped in a dangerous circle that Ven knew he was powerless to free them from.

"Very well, then," Xehanort was saying. "It will be as you wish. You may take the child back home with you - that is, if-"

"Forever," Aqua broke in firmly. "Ven is ours _forever_."

Xehanort looked annoyed. "You may take the child back home with you forever, IF you can successfully claim him."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Terra demanded. He and Aqua could not seem to ignore the black knights. Their eyes darted back and forth around the circle, unable to stay fixed on the king.

Xehanort laughed. The sound sent chills of hatred crawling up and down Ven's spine. "Why, it means that he is right here, in the room with us at this moment. All you have to do is pick him out - correctly, the first time - and take him with you."

The knights began to pace, all moving in the same direction, their bracelets making it seem as if their blurred forms were passing swiftly along a perfectly circular path, too quick for the eye to catch. Ven moved with the rest of them, knowing that the charms on either side of him were strong enough to mask his own weak link in the spell for now. His mind was racing. He had to figure out a way to make himself known to Terra and Aqua, without revealing the fact that Axel had failed to lock him into the enchantment.

The knights came to a stop. Xehanort gestured grandly around the circle, his eyes gleaming. "Now! Your Ventus is close at hand. Choose him out of my knights, lay your claim on him. If your bond with him is true, you should have no trouble recognizing him."

"Are you kidding?" Terra yelled. "They're all friggin' _identical_!" He looked around wildly, then stormed off in a random direction until Aqua seized his arm to stop him.

"Terra," she said tightly. "We only have one chance."

Terra's eyes narrowed, and he glared up at the king. "What happens if we don't get it right the first time?"

Xehanort's unpleasantly gleeful laugh rang out again. "Why, then Ventus is once again free to be our sacrifice of flesh, and you two will make fine additions to the ranks of my Dusks."

Only the looks of horror on their faces were able to hold Ven's reaction in check, as if they were giving expression to his own feelings as well. He focused all his concentration on holding perfectly still, knowing that his false bracelet would do nothing to mask his small shifts and movements, as a real one would have. He could not give himself away now, not yet, not until the time was right.

"How...how much time do we have?" Aqua asked, her voice trembling.

"Oh, there's no rush," Xehanort said warmly. "Take until the new moon if you like, since that is when we need Ventus to play his part. If you haven't made up your minds by then, you'll have forfeited your claim to him. However, since I am in a generous mood, in that case I will release you with no strings attached. A consolation prize, if you will."

Aqua reached out to grip Terra's arm again, turning her head to glare at him. He frowned in response and nodded, laying his hand over hers. Then he gently detached her hand and held it reassuringly, turning back to tell Xehanort in a strong voice, "We're not going to stall. We _will_ take Ven home with us."

The king smiled, gesturing at the circle of knights.

Still holding hands, Aqua and Terra took deep breaths and began moving along the circle, looking closely into each face, obviously taken aback that they could see nothing within the hoods except perhaps identical shadowed mouths. Pretty early on, Terra reached out to lower someone's hood, but yelped and snatched his hand back when the spell sparked viciously at his fingers.

"Now, now, you must play fair," Xehanort laughed. "It is part of the test that their faces stay hidden."

"You call this playing fair?" Terra growled. He rubbed his still-tingling fingers against his jeans, trying to restore the feeling in them. He and Aqua eventually completed the circuit, then came to a halt, looking dismayed. Aqua finally drew him back into the center of the room, where they conferred quietly. Then they broke apart and went back to inspect each figure on their own.

_'It's impossible,'_ Ven thought angrily. _'The test is impossible, especially when he cheats with magic.'_ Tears stung his eyes. _'Terra, I'm here...Aqua, I'm right here...'_ It was so heartbreaking each time one of them came and paused before him and looked at him hard, as he gazed into their eyes and willed them to recognize him, then watched the hope die a little more in their expressions as they moved on...

They came to a stop in the middle again. Aqua simply stood there, looking lost. Terra swore and began prowling around the circle again, reaching out to the knights, trying unsuccessfully to push back their hoods despite being repeatedly stung by the enchantment.

Then Aqua began to sing. _"No matter what the time, we'll always be together...no matter what the time..."_

Ven did not even realize that his mouth was moving, voicelessly forming the words of the song that seemed to have been written on his heart. Only when Terra stopped in front of him and then stared, his gaze sharpening, dawning comprehension in his expression, that Ven realized what he was doing. _The light known as "you" finds me in the middle of the night._

"There!" Terra shouted. He tackled Ven, perhaps fearing (rightly) that Xehanort would try to cheat again if he was not quick enough.

As the boys tumbled to the ground, Ven's hood was knocked back to reveal his face. "Terra," he said desperately, "don't let me go, whatever happens, no matter how much it hurts, please don't let go of me-"

"Silence, boy!" Xehanort shouted, and Ven's speech was abruptly sealed. At the same moment, his whole body suddenly burst into light, so intense that no one in the room could see a thing.

"Ven!" Aqua cried. Then, when the screaming began, "Terra? _Terra_!"

o.o.o

The pain was excruciating. At first, Terra's limbs had simply seized up so that he could not have let go of Ven even if he had tried. Then, when his body was released to writhe in agony, he dimly recalled Ven's last desperate cry, tried with the only bit of conscious thought he had left to keep his arms around to the boy, to continue to hold close this thing that was burning him, to cling to the light that seemed to eat through fabric and flesh and bone to strike at his very heart.

He knew he could not do it. He locked his fingers together, even bit down on Ven's shoulder so that the fire seared his mouth, but he was not going to be able to hold on for long, especially with that horrible voice whispering in his ears.

_"Your heart is so full of darkness, foolish boy. Why do you continue to hold on? Ventus is a being of pure light, your very touch is a desecration. If you persist, such purity will burn away every last bit of darkness in you. Do you think there will be anything left if you have no light in you, boy? The light is quenched by your fear and anger, it will consume you, let go now before it is too late..."_

"No!" Terra moaned, feeling tears start to run down his face. _'I won't, I...I can't let go...I...'_ He felt as if the deepest secrets of his heart had been laid out, bare and ugly for anyone to see. What a selfish person he was, continuing to cling to this beautiful creature, continuing to sully it with his touch...if he had any trace of honor left, he would release this being, set it free from his presence. "I...have to...hold on..."

As if in a dream, he lay alone on a beach, the sun searing his flesh, dried sand crusted in the back of his damp hair, the waves like acid as they splashed against him. Terra found that he was clutching something in his hand so tightly that it bit into his palm and fingers, drawing blood. A cluster of shells, fastened together in the shape of a star. Its blood-stained state sickened him, but he could not quite bring himself to let go, not yet.

In agony, Terra rolled over and got unsteadily to his knees, trying to get away from the burning water at least. He staggered forward a little and then collapsed again, the sharp grains of sand scratching his face.

He was not quite alone after all. Someone was lounging farther up the beach, watching him, a young man with silvery hair and sea-green eyes. A pair of dark wings were draped around him, as if he was bathing his feathers in the sunlight.

"Help me," Terra croaked, reaching out a desperate hand.

Those sea-green eyes regarded him coolly. "Why should I? I'm a Guardian of Light. You're not under my protection."

Terra collapsed, despair seeming to sap his strength. It was true, he could feel the darkness eating away at him almost like the light was. He curled up and held the star-shaped charm close to his heart, wishing that the sea would wash up and swallow him...

A shadow fell over his body, bringing relief.

Although still burning at the touch of the sand, Terra looked up and found that he was shielded from the deadly sunshine at least by a set of outspread wings. The angelic figure had come to sit beside him. "So, you're a creature of pure darkness?"

"Yes..."

The young man chuckled. "You ever seen one?"

Terra blinked up at him in confusion.

"I have. Ugly monsters, most of 'em. A few are small and almost harmless, from people who didn't have much darkness in their hearts. But I've never seen a child of the dark who can retain human form and fight so hard to save a friend he loves."

Terra stared at him. "What do you mean?"

Those sea-green eyes regarded him seriously. "Terra. What did Ven tell you and Aqua, that night you all were playing Command Board?"

"...What?" It was a struggle to remember what he was talking about. That life seemed so long ago, so far away, almost as if it had belonged to a different person, a person who did not matter anymore.

"Ven told you something important. Can you remember what he said?" As the silence dragged on, he added softly, "A lot depends on this, Terra."

"He...he said..." Ven had been so worried about them, so afraid for their sakes. He was such a good, kind boy. Terra suddenly remembered the exact words, and was too ashamed to say them out loud.

"What did he _say_?" the young man demanded harshly.

"He said, 'I love you,'" Terra whispered.

The young man nodded. "Think about it, Terra. Ven is a being of pure light. How could he love someone who doesn't have any light at all?" There was a pause. "Just so you know, such a thing is impossible," he added. "A being of pure light cannot love a being of pure darkness."

Terra closed his eyes. "You're right. He's so...nice. Sparing my...feelings like that, I know he-"

The Guardian kicked him impatiently. "That's not what I meant, idiot! Turn it around."

Terra barely heard him. His grip on the seashells was loosening.

"Terra, _focus_. Look at me! Ven told you he loves you. He _can't_ love a being of pure darkness, and he can't lie, either. Stop that, pay attention! Ven is a fae, he _can't lie_."

Terra blinked slowly.

"Terra!"

Terra's grip suddenly tightened again.

After a long moment, the young man said quietly, "Love is a powerful force, strong enough to overcome any darkness."

The agony had drained away, leaving Terra's whole body aching, a dull pain still throbbing in his chest. He rolled onto his back and stared up at the sky, his eyes watering at how bright it was. "The darkness," he said softly. "Where did it come from?" Fae could not lie. Xehanort had twisted the truth, but not overwritten it. Terra had never realized before how much secret negativity he had been harboring.

"Fear. Behind people's rage and bitterness, behind their pride and obsession and stubbornness, it's always fear."

"What am I afraid of?" Terra said blankly.

"What are you afraid of?" was the meaningful question.

It came to him. "The people I love...I couldn't stand it if I lost them...I would do everything in my power to keep them safe."

"What would happen?" the young man pressed. "What is the very worst that could happen? If Ven was offered up as teind, if Aqua was turned into a Dusk, if your parents were killed, if you were never to see your friends again."

For a second, Terra felt paralyzed. Then he managed to choke out, "I would die."

"Would you?"

Terra lay there for several long minutes. Finally he said, slowly, "No. I couldn't...waste their loss. I couldn't just give in, sit there and despair without doing anything. I'd...I'd..."

"Would you fight? If provided with a weapon, would you fight?"

"I want to protect others. I want the world to be a good place for other people."

"Even if you lost everyone you love?"

"Even if...even if I lost the ones I want to protect the most...they aren't the only people in the world. They aren't the only ones who are precious to someone. I want...I want to do some good with my life, not just settle for my own selfishness."

Riku smiled. "You got it, Terra. Don't let go of Ven 'til you've fulfilled the terms - but it shouldn't be long, you're pretty close now. The next part's up to Ven, so stay strong and don't let your trust in him waver. And even if he fails...even if the worst happens, I know where you are now. I've taken you under my protection, and I'll make sure you get home safely. Remember what you told me, because if you wimp out, you'll get on my bad side - and trust me, you do not want to tick off a Guardian."

o.o.o

When Terra opened his eyes, he could see nothing but light, yet it was no longer painful. He could look straight into it without flinching. He was not hurting anymore; in fact, the light was soothing, filling him with a healing warmth, making him feel strong and energized.

He heard Aqua shouting his name over and over again, and someone else laughing cruelly. Ven was crying.

_'I have to get up,'_ Terra thought. Still holding Ven securely in his arms, he climbed to his feet and blindly took a few steps. Complete silence fell as he rose up. "Oi, Faerie King," he called.

The light vanished abruptly. There was no disorientation, no adjustment. It was merely gone, and Terra looked around to find himself in the middle of the throne room, Ven staring up at him; the other knights, most of them now unhooded, regarding him with astonishment; Aqua, held back by a burly auburn-haired man, crying out in joy at the sight of him; Xehanort glaring at him with a furious expression.

"Ven is mine now," Terra said firmly. "Aqua and I passed your little test. All three of us are going home."

Ven turned around and hugged him, causing Terra to laugh a little in surprise. Aqua kicked at the man holding her back, who let go with an annoyed look. She ran to throw her arms around both of them, kissing Ven and then holding him close like he was her own child. Terra stepped in front of them protectively, glaring Xehanort down, silently demanding that the king keep his word.

They held each other's eyes for a long moment. Then Xehanort finally shrugged, feigning disinterest. "Hmph. Very well, you've succeeded. Your claim holds true, you're free to go. I and my knights won't stop you."

Terra and Aqua looked around warily. Ven trembled, knowing that something was wrong. _'He's not going to just let us go...especially not with that horrible smug look on his face, he won't stop cheating until Aqua and Terra are worse than dead and I've been sacrificed at the new moon-'_

They all jumped at the sound of echoing footsteps. Luxord and Marluxia moved aside to let a dark figure through, and Ven suddenly pulled Terra and Aqua behind him. "Run," he told them. "Get away."

"We're not leaving you, Ven," Aqua said angrily.

Terra's hands twitched as he glared at the approaching Vanitas, as if he wished he held a weapon.

"You have to let Aqua and Terra go," Ven demanded of Xehanort. "They've fulfilled your terms."

"The _terms_," Aqua interrupted before Xehanort could even speak, "were that Ventus and Terra and I would all return home without any hindrance from you."

"Ah, yes," Xehanort smirked. "You set your claim on Ventus, and I will hold to my word: no member of my court will stop you from leaving. However, Vanitas is no longer a member of my court. He was released as soon as Ventus was, and you hold the same claim over him as you do over Little Wind, for they are one and the same. Vanitas will accompany you to Earth...that is, _if_ he decides to go quietly. He is a mischievous one, and I don't see you having the means to subdue him if he decides to cause trouble."

The torches around the walls, which had been crackling and snapping in agitation ever since Vanitas's entrance, now suddenly flared in their brackets so that the flames nearly touched the ceiling for a second. Everyone looked around in surprise, and then almost every eye went to Axel.

He stood with his arms tightly folded, a grim look on his face, but as soon as he realized that he was the center of attention, the torches abruptly calmed to their normal flickering. He grinned, rested one hand casually on his hip, and gestured with the fingers of his other hand. A fire nymph appeared, mooning them all with a naughty smile until the irritated-looking Saïx made a motion that caused the apparition to disappear.

"Do you have a problem with my bargaining, Axel?" Xehanort asked kindly, his eyes burning.

The fire sprite shrugged. "Why would I have a problem with screwing over a couple of stupid, sentimental mortals, or chaining Ventus to the stake when Vanitas would make just as good a teind? I'm fey, after all. I just _love_ causing mischief and cheating my way out of bargains. Keep at it, Chief, we're all right behind ya."

Vanitas summoned an odd-looking weapon. "Want me to beat him for you, Master?"

"Of course not, Vanitas," Xehanort said coolly, "unless your new masters wish you to. You have no allegiance to me now, after all."

"We are no one's masters," Aqua said flatly. "Ven is our friend, and Vanitas...you will not be allowed to hurt the people we love."

"Hmph. Who's gonna stop me? You?" the dark creature scoffed. "Just try it. See what becomes of your precious Ventus if anything bad happens to me."

"Just shut up," Terra said angrily. "Ven is pure light. He doesn't have anything to do with _you_."

"Terra," Ven said softly, "I'm not a true Prince of Light. The darkness in my heart...it's no longer within me, it was stripped away. But it's not gone."

Terra and Aqua looked at Vanitas with horror.

Vanitas swung his weapon into a battle stance. "You gonna make me chase you down, Ventus? 'Cause if you are, you better get going, I'm pretty tired of this chit-chat."

"I'm not going to run," Ven said grimly.

Vanitas laughed. "Don't tell me you're just gonna stand there and let me destroy you! You have nothing to fight me with, idiot!" He brandished the weapon, a darkly beautiful blade shaped like a key, with gems staring out of it like eyes. "Or are you hiding someone else's heart in that empty chest of yours?"

Ven turned slowly to his friends, his eyes haunted. "Terra. Aqua," he said in a low voice. "Will you lend me your strength?"

"You're not really going to fight him? Ven, don't be foolish!" Aqua cried.

Terra set a hand on his shoulder. "I trust you," he said. "What do you need, Ven?"

"It's going to hurt," Ven whispered. "It'll hurt so bad. You can say no. Terra, you can say no, I don't want-"

"I'll give you anything, Ven. _Anything_," Terra growled. "Take it."

Staring at him with her mouth open, Aqua suddenly turned to Ven and cupped his face in her hand. "We came here to save you, Ven," she said softly. "Whatever you need, we're willing to give."

He closed his eyes, obviously trying to hold back tears. "Thank you. You'll hate me if you survive, but...now that I still have the chance to tell you...thank you." He poised his hands over their hearts.

"What are you talking about? Of course we-"

"We'd _never_ hate you, Ve-"

Then they both screamed as light flared against Ven's palms. He winced and nearly stopped at their cries, but then set his teeth and determinedly kept extracting their hearts until they had taken shape in his hands as weapons of light.

Terra and Aqua fell to the ground, clutching their chests where their hearts should have been, staring up at Ven in shock and wonder. They still lived, still breathed, still moved, but there was a deep emptiness within them now, a horrible feeling of something missing, a faint ache where an integral part of their beings had been torn away.

Ven looked in wonder at the shining weapons in his hands. They were so strong...he had known they would be strong. Terra's Keyblade, powerful and deadly, with the strength of the earth; Aqua's, as beautiful as any work of art, elegant and flowing with a power akin to magic. If his two friends had been born as fae, they would have been incredible warriors, perhaps surpassing the king's knights. Ven might very well be able to prevail in this fight after all.

The fae had been staring at the new Keyblades in amazement, but now Vanitas was the first to recover. "Hah! That's very pretty and all, Ventus, but how well do you think you're gonna hold up when every strike and parry means that your friends will _suffer_?" He was already attacking as he spoke.

Ven swiftly brought up the Keyblades, crossing them as he did so. He caught Vanitas's weapon with what would have been a very satisfying block, if the jolt of it hadn't set Terra and Aqua screaming again and sent pain tearing through his own chest. _'Every strike is going to be like this,'_ he reminded himself fiercely. _'Every single blow is going to feel like you've struck yourself, every single one will hurt Aqua and Terra. You knew this. You chose to lose them in order to save them. You have to go through with this! Fight back!'_

His memories of his past were hazy, but his body still knew how to fight. Unexpected things happened, too - every once in a while, Terra's Keyblade would pull him into some move he was sure he had never performed before, or Aqua's would put an attack spell into his head that he knew would have been far too advanced for his own abilities, even when he had been whole. The potential of these weapons' true wielders was breathtaking.

Despite that, the battle was both physically and emotionally grueling. Terra and Aqua had been dragged to the side, where they held on to each other and cried out in pain with every blow, their bodies jerking and convulsing. Keyblades were not meant to be wielded by any but their own masters.

Even if he could have completely drowned out his friends' suffering, Ven still found himself unable to hit as hard as he needed to. His own Keyblade was in the hands of his enemy, he was hurting just as much as Terra and Aqua were. So much strength was lost as he whittled away at Vanitas bit by bit, tears leaking down his own face from the pain as he tried and failed to attack at full power.

"You're not gonna get very far like this," Vanitas taunted, swinging a blow at his head. Ven just barely managed to block. He shot a Sleep spell that Vanitas dodged; swung around with Terra's Keyblade instead; made contact with the first swing, missed with the second, fired off what he thought was merely a strong fire spell suggested by Aqua's Keyblade, and was startled when the entire battlefield was briefly incinerated, though Vanitas managed to teleport out of the worst of it.

Ven instinctively tried to dash away as Vanitas materialized behind him, but took a hit in the back before he managed to get far enough. _'Should have rolled,'_ he snarled at himself. _'You know how to dodge-roll, stop forgetting important stuff like that, don't get distracted, watch him, be ready, predict his moves, oh help it's impossible-'_

Vanitas caught him in a combo. Ven screamed and tried desperately to recover and break out of it, but he was trapped into the line of swift blows, feeling them both on his body and his exposed heart, unable even to fall as he was caught up again and again in attack after attack. At least Aqua and Terra were not experiencing this nightmare as well, since his inability to bring up their hearts to protect himself was sparing them from more pain.

The combo ended. Vanitas vanished, and Ven sensed instinctively that he meant to come down from above for a finishing blow. He flung himself to the side just in time. Vanitas crashed his weapon into the floor, and Ven screamed again as his heart-blade shattered stone.

Without even pausing, Vanitas lunged up and toward his opponent, trapping Ven against the wall. Ven had just managed to bring up his own weapons to block, but he had nowhere to go, no strength to turn away Vanitas's blade, powerless except to keep the edge of his own heart's weapon as far away from his throat as he could.

"You realize how pointless this is, don't you?" Vanitas said cruelly. "You're just hurting yourself and your friends, and you don't even have anything to gain if you win."

"It hurts you, too," Ven said grimly. "My heart may also be yours, but you were never meant to wield it."

Vanitas's face suddenly went closed and hard. "I'm not a weakling like you. I've hurt myself so much that I can do it without hesitation now - unlike you, who can't even manage a single all-out attack."

"I...I won't let you win."

Vanitas burst into laughter. "Are you kidding? You 'win' either way. You _lose_ either way. _I_ will win, and I have nothing to lose. The moment you vanquish this Keyblade, Ventus, your heart will be lost forever. _You can't stop me_ from doing whatever I want, because you don't have the guts to break your own heart."

Ven's eyes narrowed. He glanced briefly at Aqua and Terra, huddled miserably across the room, watching him with desperate eyes. He looked back into the face of his other half. "You're wrong. I will do what needs to be done."

The only warning was a sudden rush of warmth. Ven just barely managed to shout "Fire!" in time to pretend that Axel's spell was his own as a ring of flames burst out around him.

Vanitas was knocked back, then immediately forced to defend himself when Ven leaped at him. Ven's strikes were swift and merciless; tears of pain leaked down his face, but he kept grimly on, still not at full strength but with a determination that kept Vanitas hard pressed to stand up to.

Then Ven suddenly flipped his weapons into the air, catching them in a standard hold rather than the reversed grip he was accustomed to, and slashed with both at the same time. Vanitas, startled, was just an instant too slow. His Keyblade crashed into Ven's with an awkward clang rather than a controlled block, and the weapon was knocked out of his hand.

Ven wasted no time, kicking him down and slamming the Keyblades into the ground beside his opponent's neck, trapping the disarmed Vanitas between two blades. Golden eyes glared up into his.

"You think you've won," Vanitas said, his voice soft with hatred. "We're always one step ahead of you." He suddenly kicked out in an attempt to knock Ven down. Ven dodged by a hair's breadth, but was forced to abandon his weapons. He desperately held out his hands to summon them, even as Vanitas was doing the same.

The gesture was pure instinct - if Ven had thought about it, he would have realized what a foolish move that was. The Keyblades materialized in front of Terra and Aqua instead, and Vanitas now stood triumphantly, not only with his Keyblade back in his hand, but with a black, menacing cloud beginning to rise from his back. The dark mass semi-solidified into a figure, a vaguely humanoid monster with glowing eyes.

Ven sucked in a breath and backed away, then turned to shout at Xehanort. "You can't do that! You can't _do_ that, that's interference!"

"Am I the first?" Xehanort challenged, and Ven had no answer, for while Axel's timely spell had gotten him out of a tough spot, it might have sealed his doom as well.

Ven circled back around toward the Keyblades he needed, his eyes fixed on Vanitas. The other boy was approaching slowly, grinning, looking sure of his victory. Then he suddenly closed the distance between them in a lightning-fast move. Ven gasped and instinctively brought up his arms, forgetting that he was defenseless. He was seized in the Dark Guardian's crushing grip and lifted until his feet dangled far above the ground. He could hear Terra's and Aqua's shouts as he fought for breath.

Just then, there was a flash of light, and someone came tumbling down from above, crashing right into Ven and knocking him out of the Dark Guardian's hands. Ven collapsed as one of the frantically flapping white wings clipped him on the back of the head; dislodged feathers were floating about. He coughed and gagged until he could breathe again, then looked up and met a pair of startled blue eyes. "S...Sora?"

"Ven?" The other boy's face lit up. "VEN!" Sora flung his arms around him in delight. "I found you, I _finally found you_!"

"Sora, I let go." Ven had wanted to tell him this very badly. He was desperate to get it out, in case they were separated again. "I let go...I'm so sorry."

"It was my fault," Sora said firmly, clapping both hands on his shoulders. "I'm your Guardian, I'm supposed to keep you safe! I totally messed up! I'll never do that again, I _promise_!"

"You shouldn't make promises you won't be able to keep." Both boys whirled at the sound of Vanitas's voice.

At the sight of him, Sora actually reeled back in shock. "Waahhh! No way! _No way_! How did you get so big? What are you doing with that Keyblade? That's Ven's! You're _fighting Ven with his own Keyblade_? Gah! AND you're cheating? So it's you whose trail led me here! Oi!" He seemed to be talking directly to the Dark Guardian now. "Ven is MY ward, so that means Vani is, too! Get your hands off him!"

The Dark Guardian shifted. Its speech was an unintelligible, nearly inaudible rumbling, but it set the torches shuddering and made Ven and the humans double over in intense discomfort, their hands pressed over their ears. Even some of the knights were backing away, shaking their heads in agitation, or cringing.

"Then go back to the king! I can haul you into Judgment for stealing Vani, you know!"

More unbearable rumbling.

"That isn't gonna work, Ven was mine before his heart got fractured..." Yet he looked uncertain.

"Sora." The young Guardian turned back to Ven curiously. "Vani - I mean, Vanitas...he won't let us go. Terra and Aqua made a bargain and fulfilled the terms, but we still haven't been released."

Sora's wings, which had been twitching restlessly in a reflection of his mood, now flapped once or twice in distress. "Ven, that's Faerie politics, I can't really get involved." Then a determined look came over his face, and he turned back to Vanitas, a Keyblade appearing in his hand. "I _can_ deal with that ugly troublemaker for you, though. Can you handle Vani?"

Ven looked back at the humans, almost too ashamed to face them, yet knowing it was his only hope. To his surprise, Terra was actually back on his feet, and held out his Keyblade without hesitation the moment their eyes met. Though Aqua looked to be in worse shape, her arm, despite its trembling, extended her Keyblade to him hilt-first as soon as he looked at her. "Are you...sure?" Ven managed to ask. "After what I've done?"

"I told you," Terra said roughly. "I trust you. I'm expecting you to win this one, Ven."

"We believe in you," Aqua said softly.

Sora was staring at them. He looked between Terra, Aqua, Ven, and Vanitas, and made a small exclamation under his breath as the situation dawned on him. Then he gestured at Terra and Aqua. "Heal!"

They were restored at once, gasping with the surprise of it, every cut and bruise fading from their flesh. Sora flicked his fingers again and tossed them several magically-appearing elegant bottles filled with liquid. "Drink those when you feel bad," he instructed. Then he glanced at Ven and grinned. "Let's do this!"

It gave Ven a surge of renewed strength, knowing that he was not fighting alone. Not only were Terra's and Aqua's hearts in his hands, lending him their power, but Sora was back and all was finally well between them.

The two Guardians raged against each other in the air as Ven and Vanitas went for each other's throats again. "You're going to wish you had never been born by the time I'm finished with you," Vanitas growled, aiming another combo at him.

Ven threw himself into a dodge-roll this time, eluding the other's attack. _"Time Splicer,"_ Aqua's Keyblade whispered to him. He cast the spell, having no idea what it was, and time suddenly seemed to stop for everyone except himself. Sora and the Dark Guardian were frozen in the air, Sora's Keyblade poised to give it a good wallop across the shoulders. Terra and Aqua were open-mouthed statues by the wall. Axel watched with narrowed green eyes, his fingers caught in a gesture as if he was about to summon fire; Vexen was stopped in mid-scribble as he wrote on his clipboard; Xigbar's mouth was caught wide open in a yawn; Larxene had a gleeful sneer fixed on her face. Even Xehanort was statue-still in his throne, eyes alight with interest but now pointing in the wrong direction.

By pure borrowed instinct, Ven slipped in and out of the timestream with incredible speed, aiming brutal attacks at Vanitas now that he did not have to hear Terra and Aqua reacting to them. They were sure to experience the full brunt of it once the spell had expired, but for now, he had to seize the opportunity to its fullest.

When the spell broke, Ven was completely incapacitated for a moment as he listened to the blows catching up to Terra and Aqua all at once, but at least Vanitas was far worse off, and did not have the means to recover like they now did.

It still hurt. It hurt so badly, every time he landed a hit. It was like beating himself black and blue, a self-inflicted punishment all the more painful because his loved ones were sharing it, and because he could not increase it enough to be truly effective. If only he had his own Keyblade...if only-

Vanitas, fleeing the deadly arc of Ven's blades, leaped behind Terra and Aqua, seizing each of them by the throat.

"Don't touch them!" Ven shouted.

Sora came fluttering down beside him. Ven shot a swift glance back - there was no sign of the Dark Guardian except a black mist that was rapidly evaporating, and an enraged expression on Xehanort's face. So that was one less thing to worry about.

"I know you're not gonna defeat me," Vanitas panted, looking like every word cost some effort, "'cause you might as well kill yourself. But...I think I can have some fun before you try...see how you react to watching me choke the life out of your little friends..." He was squeezing as he spoke, impervious to Terra's and Aqua's scrabbling fingers on his hands as they gagged and convulsed, unable to get air into their lungs.

"Don't TOUCH THEM!" Shouting in fury, Ven lunged forward, aiming a spell at Vanitas's head. The other boy ducked, and was forced to let go of the humans as he circled around, getting out of the way. "I'll _kill you_!"

"That's more like it," Vanitas snarled back, back in battle stance with his Keyblade at the ready. "We'll see now who's more-"

Ven easily blocked his attack, registering the pain only distantly. He heaved Vanitas away, turning the power of his blow back at him; swung hard and connected this time; immediately dodge-rolled behind the other boy and hacked at his legs. "Even if I have to erase myself from existence, I will _never let you touch the people I love again_!"

For the first time, genuine fear began to steal into Vanitas's eyes. Ven saw it and smiled. Vanitas tried to dash away; Ven was fast enough, struck him in the back, attacked again and again in a combo of his own, until Vanitas finally managed to roll over and get his Keyblade up to block.

It was exactly what Ven had been waiting for. Raising his Keyblades high, he brought them down with all the strength he had, drawing on the knowledge of Terra's and Aqua's pain to feed his rage, opening himself up to the blow rather than cringing away.

The Keyblade shattered.

Vanitas's eyes went blank at the same time Ven's did. There was a long pause as everyone stared, not sure if it had truly happened. Then Vanitas collapsed and Ven fell forward as if his strings had been cut, both of them sprawled across the floor like dolls. They did not move or breathe, and their faces were completely clean of expression.

"Ven!" Aqua screamed. She crawled over to him, her fingers tight around the last healing elixir. Terra got there first, flinging himself to his knees and lifting Ven gently, but there was no response. Aqua pulled the stopper out of the bottle with shaking fingers and held the elixir to Ven's lips, but she could not make him swallow the mixture, it simply ran out of the corners of his mouth. She turned to Sora. "Do something!" she shouted. "_Do something_!"

The Guardian was standing there as if paralyzed, his face frozen in shock. "This is not happening," he whispered. "It can't be happening..."

"It did happen!" Terra yelled at him. "You're his Guardian? Save him! Don't just stand there!"

Sora thrust out his hand desperately. Nothing happened. "Hey, Ven! Ventus, don't do this to me!" He flung his hand out again and again, but though the air began to crackle with magical charge, none of it caused a reaction.

"Ven," Aqua was sobbing, "Ventus, wake up..." She began to sing to him again, stroking his face, but still there was no response.

"You're wasting your breath," Axel said flatly. Sora and the humans acted as if they had not heard, but the other knights glanced over at him. "His heart's been shattered. He'll never wake up." He turned and walked out of the room.

"Are you going to keep an eye on that one?" Vexen asked their master haughtily. "His professionalism's been slipping of late."

"I'll deal with him later," Xehanort said impatiently. "Right now, I'm more interested in seeing how this unfolds."

Sora stood staring at his fallen friend, an uncomfortable conviction growing in his heart. His hands slowly clenched into fists. Then he smiled.

Looking up at the ceiling, he called, "Sorry, Riku. Guess I won't be much help after all. Naminé...I love you." Then he strode toward Ven without anymore hesitation. As soon as he was close enough, he dropped to his knees, and as he fell forward, his body dissolved into light just before making contact with Ven.

Aqua gasped. She thought she had seen... There it was again, Ven's eyelids fluttering slightly. Then he stirred.

"Ven!" Terra cried hopefully.

Ven turned his head, a whisper rising from his lips. "Kairi..." He opened his eyes.

"Ven!" Aqua practically grabbed him out of Terra's arms so that she could hug him, holding him so tightly that he began to gasp for air.

"Aqua, that hurts..." His eyes met Terra's. There was a long pause, filled only with Aqua's relieved sobs. "Something's...wrong."

"You _are_ Ven, right?" Terra asked cautiously.

Ven pulled away, pressing one hand hard against his own chest. "I...I broke my heart. I shouldn't even be able to..." His hand had started shaking. "This is Sora's heart. He gave me his. He's dead."

Terra and Aqua stared at him, not sure what to say.

"He's dead," Ven whispered again. Tears filled his eyes.

Aqua reached for his hands and pulled until they were both standing up. "Let's go home, Ven." She turned her head to glare at Xehanort. "We're _going home_."

"Don't even try to stop us again," Terra said darkly.

"Hm," Xehanort mused, "for the price of a Guardian? I think it's worth it." He waved his hand. "Off with you, then. Careful on your way out."

The knights chuckled nastily.

_To be continued..._

Author's Notes: I know that Roxas does not equal Ventus and they have different personalities, but for some reason, I have trouble separating them in my mind...they feel like the same person to me. Reno and Axel, not so much, though I still couldn't resist taking advantage of their connection.

Terra's rescue of Ven was ripped straight from "The Ballad of Tam Lin."

For those of you wondering if that was Sora/Kairi or Sora/Naminé, the answer is that there's a vague _Chain of Memories_ setup going on in the background.


	4. Thirteen Gates

_**Little Wind**_**, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Chapter 4 - Thirteen Gates**

A/N: One of the things I dislike most about this fic is the rushed relationship development, so I apologize about that.

o.o.o

_"Just keep going. It's okay if the scenes go on one by one."_

o.o.o

Ven managed to hide away a few Potions before they left. He knew they were desperately going to need them.

The path leading from Faerie to the mortal realm ran through thirteen gates. As they made their approach toward the first, Ven abruptly stopped, pulling Terra and Aqua back. "Some of them are going to be harder than they look," he warned. "The first one is Nothingness. You have to hold on, you have to remember. Aqua, Terra, I love you, I love both of you so much. If you forget me...I'll be destroyed. You _have to remember_."

Aqua hugged him. "We'd never forget you, Ven," Terra assured him. "We're closer than anything. We'll be fine."

They held hands as they entered the void. Then there was nothing.

o.o.o

Black.

...

Wait. Something about that. Black. It was a color. It described something.

...What?

The being thought about this for a long time. _Place._ Yes. This was a place, and it was black.

The being shifted, and abruptly remembered _Movement_.

If...if one was to make a movement, there had to be something to move. What was moving?

The being could not figure this out for a while, so it focused on the black place again. If it was black, as opposed to something else...what was the something else?

...White. No, _light_. This place was _dark_, and had no _light_.

_'Ahhh, something is wrong here,'_ the being thought. It realized that it wished for light, instead of this dark. _'How do I find light?'_

_"Aqua!"_

The being was startled and overwhelmed, its body convulsing from the effect of too many strange concepts being introduced to it all at once. Sound, voice, name, body. _'Help me, help me, help me, it's too much, I'm going to break...'_

_"Aqua! Please, remember!"_

Aqua, Aqua, Aqua, why was that so important... _'Help me!'_ Name. Ah, it had been naming things just now - black and dark and light. Aqua was _its_ name. _'I...am. I am Aqua.'_ Then, hesitantly, _'I have a body...I have ears to hear them call my name...who are 'they,' I wonder?'_

_"Aqua...please...please don't forget..."_

Others. There were other beings. It was not alone, there were others...and just like it craved light, it also wished to be with these others.

_'If they are...then they have names. What are their names?'_

_"Please remember!"_

V...Ventus. Terra. Yes, Ventus and Terra. Two of them. Two of them whom it - she - loved very much. _'Love- Ahh, it hurts...'_

The concept of love was too much, too much; but the despite the pain, it was a good thing, a desperately good thing, and it - she - knew there was something so very important to be done because of it.

_"Aqua!"_

_'I know what my body looks like now. I have to move these feet forward. One step. Another.'_

_"Yes! Oh, thank you!"_

_"That's it, Aqua, keep going! Take another step!"_

She wondered if she could move faster than this, could rush to the ones she wanted to be with so badly. _'More...faster...'_

_"Aqua!"_

o.o.o

Aqua burst out of the gateway, stumbling into Terra's arms. "Good job, sweetheart," he murmured to her.

"Aqua!" Ven flung his arms around her. "You didn't move for so long, I thought you had forgotten, I thought you were going to be stuck there forever..."

"Ven," she whispered, hugging him back.

Terra turned to the second gate, groaning. "Man, if that was the first one, what are the rest gonna be like?"

"Some are worse than others," Ven said unhappily. "But any of them can take you down if you're not careful."

They held hands going into this one, too.

Then nearly let go, both from the shock of it and because Aqua's scream startled them all.

"It's okay!" Ven shouted. "Don't let go of my hand!"

"We're upside down," Terra yelled, his breath coming too quickly, "we're friggin' upside-down. _Again_."

"Help," Aqua whimpered. "Ven..."

"Calm down, calm down," he said frantically, because he knew he would lose them if they panicked. "We have to move together. We can't-"

Terra let out another yell and suddenly vanished, re-appearing sideways below them.

"Terra!" Ven cried.

"Terra!" Aqua shrieked. She moved toward him.

"Aqua, no!"

She was suddenly hanging in the middle of the gate, looking like she was about to throw up at the sight of her arm ending abruptly at the elbow, her hand reaching out of nowhere several meters away.

"Breathe!" Ven shouted at them. "Breathe _slow_!" because he could tell they were both hyperventilating.

Terra soon had himself under control, but Aqua's eyes were still wild, and Ven could tell that she was about to faint from lack of oxygen. In desperation, he began to sing. _"Quietly, stand in the exit way, and, in the pitch-black, take the light..."_ He watched anxiously until she had calmed down, her breathing back to normal. They were both looking at him now, their eyes wide and frightened and trusting.

Ven took a deep breath. "We got separated, so we might have to make it on our own now, but it's okay, we can do it. Aqua, your hand is fine, it's still attached to you, it's just...well..." He could not figure out how to explain it. "Pull it back close to you, slowly."

Very carefully, her expression tight, Aqua drew in her arm until it was resting along the length of her body, whole again. She sighed in relief.

"Terra, you ended up there by going left, didn't you?"

"Yeah, though I have _no idea_ how I ended up on the right side...or sideways...gah, this is freaky."

"See what happens if you take one small step to the ri- no, up."

"What? _Which_ up?" Terra did have a point - the top of his head was not facing the sky.

"The opposite direction from the ground," Ven clarified. "Step up, carefully."

Terra did so, and ended up upside-down next to Ven again. He immediately reached out to seize the boy's hand, then yelled as he abruptly flipped over, so that he was right side up but hanging in midair. "This is so _stupid_!"

They made their way, step by painstaking step, across the gateway. Ven made a few mistakes which set them back, though once Aqua had gotten over her panic, she seemed to be pretty good at figuring out which directions to go. She was the first one to cross the threshold and drop abruptly to the ground where gravity was finally working properly again. Eventually, the boys managed to join her, and they all just stood there and held each other for a long time, recovering.

"What's the next one, Ven?" Terra asked tightly.

Ven smiled. "A lot easier, I think. Just hold on to me. It's the fourth gate we'll need to worry about."

As soon as they stepped into the third gate, they were struck by a gust of wind so hard that they were nearly thrown off their feet. Aqua cried out and Terra cursed explosively when they saw _six_ tornado funnels heading straight for them.

Ventus held up his hands. The howling wind died down to a playful breeze, and one of the funnels slowed, wobbled, and then gradually dissipated. The other tornadoes slowed down, but continued their ominous advance.

"Stop!" Ven called out in a loud voice. The five tornadoes halted, but then thickened and darkened. "No," Ven commanded. "You are not to come any closer. Go to sleep." Another funnel thinned and wobbled, but two of the others showed no reaction, and the two at the forefront slowly began to advance again.

"Ven?" Terra said nervously.

Ven raised his hands higher. "I, Wind Master Ventus, command you to stop!" The wobbly funnel vanished completely, and the two that had stopped now seemed to bow. However, one of the remaining funnels jumped about erratically as if agitated, and the foremost tornado suddenly expanded and descended upon them in a mass of whirling wind, no longer deadly but still frightening to be trapped within.

Terra and Aqua clung tight to Ven, desperate to stay anchored, blinded by their hair whipping uncontrollably over their faces. Ven was shouting something, but they could not hear what he was saying, the words were drowned in the howling wind.

The gale suddenly dispersed, its remains drifting around them like a sigh. The agitated tornado whipped into a thick black column, thunder and lightning crashing from within its depths.

"I didn't kill him," Ven said indignantly. "You heard our agreement. Come on. Me and my friends just want to get past. Is that too much to give?"

More thunder.

"They're human! They can't do that, I have to walk with them."

Thunder.

"All I'm asking you to do is just settle down, be gentle, and not try to stop us as we move past. Can you do that? Please?"

There was a pause. Then, all three remaining tornadoes suddenly merged, expanded, and thinned, so that the entire gatefield was full of a strong but not overpowering wind.

"Come on," Ven called to his friends, "before the wind sprites change their minds. Don't run, but keep it steady."

They made it out of the third gate, looking ridiculous with their hair whipped into bizarre styles. They found themselves laughing shakily, not in actual amusement but glad to have something to break the tension. Aqua somehow produced a comb and used it to tame her own locks, then ran it through Ven's hair until he stopped looking like a crazy trick-or-treater. Terra did not object when she pulled him down into her reach and combed his hair as well, so that most of it pointed down again rather than up.

They all looked at each other, linked arms, and headed into the fourth gate.

An intense cold struck them like a blow, and they could see nothing through the sudden fall of snow.

"Run!" Ven shouted. "Before we freeze to death!"

They made it halfway through the gatefield. Then Ven stumbled, knocking Aqua off balance. Terra hauled them both back upright and then continued on, though noticeably more slowly.

Ven could not feel his own skin, and yet it seemed to burn like fire. When he tried prodding himself under the edge of his sleeve, it took him far too long to remember how to move his arm, and then the flesh where he had touched stung viciously, even though he had not been able to feel an iota of pressure from his finger. He also noticed that he had turned a very alarming shade of blue. "We have to," he gasped, "hurry..." Then he stumbled again, dragging Aqua down with him; Terra tripped over them and crashed to his knees, swaying.

Ven closed his eyes and fell asleep almost at once. Aqua stirred feebly, but could not even sit up. Terra tried to move. He stayed stubbornly upright, and knew that he would be able to resist falling down for a while, but he could not get himself to move upward, no matter how hard he tried. "Come on, body, work," he cursed himself. The words came out in an unintelligible mumble; his lips felt thick and swollen.

Aqua managed to get her hand up to her chest. She tried to remember how it had felt when Ven had pulled out her heart to form the Keyblade. "Please," she whispered, "help us." After a long moment, her chest started to feel warm, and light began to glow beneath her palm. White sparkles started to gather sluggishly, then there was a determined flash, and she was holding her heart-blade. Its metal immediately began to grow cold from the freezing air, seeming to burn her hand; she knew that she would not be able to hold onto it for long. "Warmth!" she cried. "Heat!"

In her mind, a voice seemed to whisper to her. _"Raging Fire."_

Aqua tried to draw breath into her lungs. It was so cold that she felt like her insides were burning. "R-Raging...Fire!"

Three columns of flame erupted around them. Terra gave a startled yell, and Ven opened his eyes, blinking around in confusion.

"Come on," Aqua said urgently. Unfolding her cramped body, she seized the boys' hands, and they all fought clumsily to get to their feet. They began to move forward again, protected by the fiery shield.

Then the fire died.

Frosty wind stung their flesh, bringing waves of pain at the sudden, extreme change.

"Again, Aqua!" Ven cried frantically, but the spell did not work when she called on it a second time. "Another one, another one, try a different one..." He waved his arm restlessly, apparently trying to remember. "M-Mega...Megaflare!"

"Megaflare!" Aqua shouted. The entire gatefield erupted in fire. She thought she could hear distant screaming.

"RUN!" Ven thundered. "It won't last long!"

All three of them hurtled for the threshold, somehow immune to the heat of Aqua's spell, though they were all consumed with pain from their traumatized flesh, once frozen and now so suddenly thawed. For a moment, their hair was soaking wet as the snow on them melted; then the last of the water evaporated, and it began to get uncomfortably warm.

The spell's effects vanished. For a second, there was nothing. Then, just as the blizzard howled back to life, just as the snow sprites began to scream vengeance, the three travelers were out, all of them shaking so hard from shock that it was difficult to keep their footing.

Ven handed them some strange potions, which were difficult to drink without spilling, their lips were so numb and their hands shaking so badly. Yet, as soon as the liquid flowed down their throats, a healing warmth began to spread through them. Aqua took a deep breath and looked down at herself - her skin now looked like skin again, rather than some kind of horrible blotchy inorganic substance, and she felt sturdier and more energized.

"Four down, nine to go," Terra said glumly.

"Eight," Ven sighed. "The thirteenth gate is mine, it won't cause us trouble."

They grasped hands and plunged into the barren fifth gatefield. At first, nothing happened, though Terra and Aqua needed no prompt to run as Ven was doing. Soon enough, the earth began to shake beneath them, and then cracks began forming in the ground.

"Watch it!" Terra shouted, yanking them all hard to the left just in time to prevent Aqua from falling into a crevice that had opened up almost right under her feet.

"In front of us!" Ven cried. The ground seemed to buckle before them, then heaved up in what seemed to be a solid wall of rock. They hurried around it, but the gatefield was now roiling around them, caving and surging perilously at an increased pace. Aqua's hand was yanked out of Ven's; Terra seized Ven under one arm and dove after Aqua, grabbing her around the waist as she stumbled.

He charged forward again, and was nearly thrown down by a chunk of earth surfacing nearby. "Wind!" Ven shouted. A strong gust whipped up, steadying their footing. Terra made determinedly for the border of the gatefield, dragging the other two with him. The earth practically roared, and the shaking grew unbearable. They were blasted aside and nearly crushed against a boulder.

"I've had _enough_!" Terra thundered. Pressing his hand to his chest, he practically tore out his heart-blade in a fury. It shone in his grip, pulsing as it drew power from the gatefield itself.

"Terra," Ven whispered, hope dawning in his expression. "Terra! _Earth_! This arena is yours!"

Terra nodded, having already somehow sensed this. He raised his Keyblade high, feeling power coursing through him, and somehow knew the words to say. "Geo Impact!" he shouted, leaping high and bringing his weapon crashing down on the earth. The rocks that exploded outward were of his own making this time, and the gatefield settled, still rolling warily. "Let us pass," Terra growled. "Go to sleep and _let us pass_."

They felt as if they were being watched, but no longer were they hindered as they shakily got to their feet and made their way to the edge of the gate. Once they were safe, Aqua fell to her knees to regain her breath, and Ven wrapped his arms around himself, pressing hard to try to still his trembling.

Terra was gazing down at the Keyblade in wonder. "Why didn't it hurt this time? When you were using it, I thought I was gonna die, but just now, it was like...like it was a part of me, like I was meant to use it."

"Only you are the true wielder of your own heart's blade," Ven said softly. "Not me, or anybody else. The Keyblades know that, and they rebel if they're misused. Terra...I'm sorry."

Terra smiled at him, flipping the Keyblade in a nonchalant manner and then dropping it. He scrambled to pick it up again, slightly pink in the face. "I told you, Ven, I'd give you whatever you needed to win. You're free now, you know? I'm proud to have been part of that."

Ven smiled back.

"What's the next one?" Aqua asked, getting to her feet.

Ven took her hand again, then glanced out at the shimmering sixth gate before them. "That one...it scares me," he whispered. "Illusion. A little like the first gate, but...worse. At least, for me."

"_Worse_ than the first gate?"

Apprehension was heavy on all three of them, but in the end, there was nothing for it but to forge ahead.

o.o.o

_'Shouldn't something have happened by now?'_ They were walking, walking, and suddenly Ven realized that they had been walking for hours. _'No! That can't be right, none of the gatefields are that big.'_

He looked up at Terra and Aqua, but they seemed all right, just a little tense. "Terra? Aqua? Are you guys doing okay?"

"We're fine," the older boy snapped.

"You don't have to talk to us like we're little kids," Aqua huffed.

Ven hung his head, stung. "Sorry. I was just...worried about you." Neither of them responded. He squeezed their hands, and suddenly Aqua pulled her hand out of his.

"Ugh, stop that! My fingers are all red." She held up her hand and inspected it with a frown. "Oh, gross, my nail polish is starting to flake off. I want to get _home_ already."

"It's all right, Aqua," Terra said soothingly. "We'll be there soon. Of course, it'd be easier without this little dead weight around, but, hey, slow and steady, right?"

Ven blinked. "Did you...just call me dead weight?"

Terra gave him an annoyed look, pulling his hand free as he did so. "Why, you got a better description?"

Ven felt cold. "I...I didn't ask for you to come save me, you know."

"Yeah, and was that ever a mistake," Terra groaned, running a hand through his hair. "Kid, you've been nothing but trouble ever since you showed up."

"Well...well, I'm _sorry_. I'll just...leave...when we get through the gates...then." Ven could feel himself choking up. He had nowhere to go if Terra and Aqua abandoned him.

"You're not crying, are you?" Aqua said in disgust. "Don't be such a baby, you've had _way_ too much coddling already."

"What is your problem?" Ven shouted. "You're acting like I put you through all this on purpose, that I _forced_ you to be here!"

"Well, isn't that what happened, Ventus?"

He looked back at Terra again- Well, it wasn't Terra, it was Vanitas.

The dark fae smiled, golden eyes gleaming like a tiger's. "You think that Aqua and Terra just took you in and fixed all your problems out of the goodness of their weak little hearts, right?"

"They-"

"What an idiot."

Ven turned, startled, to find Sora on his other side where he thought Aqua had been. Their twin faces regarded him with disgust.

"Terra and Aqua are human," Sora reminded him. "There's nothing in their hearts but desperation and depravity."

"But, they...they helped me-"

"Lots of other people helped you, too," Vanitas reminded him cruelly. "The flame-haired guy who's being Dusked right now because of you..."

"Your old Master who tried to defend you from the king, and got exiled for it," Sora added, ticking off names on his fingers.

"Your own mother who now wishes she'd never given birth to you..."

"That girl with the black hair, what was her name?"

"Stop it!" Ven put his hands over his ears, as if that would block their voices. "They all _chose_ to help me, I didn't force any of them-"

"Didn't bat your pretty blue eyes at them?"

"Didn't wobble your lip and cry like a little kid?"

"Didn't put on any cutesy glamour to charm them?"

"Didn't convince each and every single one of them that your needs were more important than their safety?"

Ven was breathing hard. "I...I didn't mean...I didn't want-"

"Yes, because what _you_ want is so important," Sora said snidely.

His legs felt so weak, he could not keep standing. Ven fell slowly to his knees, feeling like he had been kicked in the stomach. "I'm such a worthless person," he realized in a whisper.

"Yeah. You should go die," Vanitas suggested.

"It's not so bad, you know," Sora added, sounding almost friendly now that Ven's confidence was shattered. "You just kind of fall, and poof! You're gone. No more pain."

"Want me to do it for you?" Vanitas offered. A sword appeared in his hand.

Ven blinked slowly. "Sora...you're dead."

"Yeah. Soon, you're gonna be, too."

"You're both dead," Ven went on. "Both of you are."

Vanitas seized his hair, raising the tip of the blade to his throat.

"Why am I...talking to you, when you're dead...?"

"Dunno. Don't care." Vanitas made to run him through.

Ven knocked the blade away, slicing open his hands but earning a sudden clarity. "I'm not dead yet. I shouldn't be seeing you. I was... What was I doing before you showed up?"

"Don't think too much, Ven," Sora suggested. "It'll hurt your tiny little brain." He went to hold Ven's arms behind his back.

"I was with Aqua and Terra," Ven remembered.

Vanitas raised the sword again.

"We were in...the gate-" Ven gasped. "We're in the Gate of Illusion! _You're not real!_"

"Shut up!" they both shouted. Vanitas thrust the sword toward his throat.

"You're nothing but _mist_!" Ven shouted back at them. "You don't exist!" The blade pierced him, feeling like nothing more than a breeze kissing his skin. The apparitions dissolved, and Ven fought to get back to his feet.

_"Ven!"_

_"Ven, please!"_

He knew those voices, recognized the relief and desperation in them. "Terra! Aqua!" he shouted.

Someone else appeared before him - Axel, emerald eyes accusing. "You got me killed, you know that? After all I did for you."

"Shut up," Ven snarled. "You're as fake as the rest of them." He tore straight through the illusion, relieved when it broke up into wisps of wind. He kept running, ignoring every single one of them: Eraqus's reproach, Xion's cries of grief, his mother's wails of regret. None of them were real, none of them were the truth.

He burst out into the light.

o.o.o

Aqua seized him at once, before he even registered that he had passed safely through the gate. "Oh, Ven," she sobbed, "I thought we lost you..."

"Hey, kid, don't scare us like that again, eh?" Terra laughed, ruffling his hair. "You got stuck like Aqua did back in the Nothing gate, I thought you weren't gonna make it."

"You don't hate me?" He knew it was a stupid question, but he had to ask. The nightmare had seemed too real.

"Of course not, Ven," Terra said firmly.

"We _love_ you, we always will," Aqua added, still hugging him fiercely.

"Yeah, I mean...heh, why do you think we'd stick our necks out for you like this if we didn't like you?"

Ven struggled out of her hold. "Aqua, Terra...I'm sorry. I-I think I might have...I didn't mean to, but sometimes I can't control my glamour, and..." It was hard to admit it, but he forced himself to. "Sometimes, when I'm scared, I...charm people. Into liking me. Into wanting to protect me." He checked to make sure, and realized, to his horror, that he was doing it right that moment. He released them both at once, waiting tensely for their reactions.

Terra blinked. "Huh...that's weird."

"_What's_ weird?" Ven demanded.

Terra laughed sheepishly. "Look, no homo, you're like my little brother, but it's like you suddenly went from really cute to, I dunno, normal."

Aqua affectionately brushed a lock of Ven's hair out of his face. "I'm not sure what just happened, but I think I know what he means. I'm sorry for treating you like a child, Ventus."

He blinked at them, confused. "What?"

Terra clapped him on the shoulder as he headed for the next gate. "Number Seven can't be any worse than the others, right? Let's get this over with already."

"Wait, do you guys _still_ not hate me?"

"Are you trying to make us?" Aqua huffed, putting her arm around his shoulders in a quick hug and then steering him after Terra.

"Well, no, but..."

o.o.o

The seventh gatefield seemed completely empty, just a lonely moon glowing over a barren landscape. All three of them were tense as they walked, waiting for some attack, but nothing came.

Ven felt itchy. He kept reaching up restlessly to scratch his neck and shoulders, getting extremely irritated when he could not reach a spot between his shoulder blades. "Aqua, could you get that for me?"

"Get _what_ for you?" she snapped.

"The ITCH!" he practically yelled in her face. "I can't reach it and it's driving me crazy!"

"You're not the only one who's itchy!" she yelled back, fingers digging into her own shoulder as if she was trying to draw blood.

"It hurts!" Ven howled, wanting to smash something. "Terra!"

"Shut up! Your voice hurts my ears!" Terra bellowed, louder than both of them combined.

Desperate and furious, Ven dropped and shoved himself along the ground, trying the soothe the irritation in the small of his back.

"Gah, I feel like I'm tied up," Terra snarled, ripping off his shirt and hurling it away.

Aqua's eyes gleamed. She flung herself at Terra did something...rather inappropriate to him.

"Oh, GROSS!" Ven yelled. "That was disgusting, don't ever- AAAHHH!" Terra had seized Aqua in his arms and now appeared to be eating her face. In between outraged screams, she was gnawing right back. "STOP IT!" Ven screeched in revulsion, flinging handfuls of dust at them because there was nothing else at hand.

Both of them whirled in unison and pounced, tearing into him like starving wolves.

"OW! _Ow_, friggin'-" Ven expelled a stream of profanity, kicking at them desperately. It _hurt_. "STOP IT!"

Terra growled and punched him. Aqua shrieked and plowed vengefully into Terra. They rolled about until he ended up straddling her, his hands squeezed around her throat. Her eyes were wild, and had...changed color. They were gold. Terra's were, too.

"That's important," Ven said to himself, staring. "That's really important. I don't know why. Gah, I want to kill them." He could do that with Keyblades. He ran forward and reached out.

The two of them screamed bloody murder as he extracted their hearts again, and then Terra began to whirl crazily, howling at the sky like a grieving wolf. Aqua staggered to her feet, knocked Terra over, and began hitting him as hard as she could.

Ven was shaking. The weapons in his hands glowed, and a new clarity of thought was beginning to circulate through his hazy brain. _'We're in the seventh gate,'_ he remembered. Horror began to cloud out the rage. _'If we don't get out of here soon, we'll kill each other.'_ "Aqua!" he shouted. "Terra!"

Her teeth were closed on his neck, as if she was trying to pierce his jugular. He was clawing desperately at her back, so hard that her shirt was actually tearing.

"_Stop it_!"

They could not hear him. Ven drew in a deep, shaky breath. "What do I do, what do I...?" He had an idea.

He approached cautiously, caking himself with as much attraction glamour as he could. "Aqua," he cooed. "Terra. Look at me."

They slowly stilled, their golden eyes fixed on him.

"Hey," he said persuasively, "you wanna come with me? You wanna come along with me so we can play somewhere nicer?"

They scrambled apart and crawled toward him eagerly, like he was a tasty-looking treat. "Eep...guys, don't eat me." He skipped back out of their reach. "Come on, come on," he coaxed, trying to keep away from their swiping hands. "Almost there, keep going..."

o.o.o

Their eyes faded back to normal colors once they were free. Ven plopped to the ground with a sigh of relief and released both the Keyblades and the glamour, sweating from exertion. For a while, he just sat there trying to assess the damage, rubbing ruefully at the bite marks on his arms. Then he realized that neither of his companions had yet spoken, and he looked up in alarm.

Terra stood grimacing into the distance, bare-chested and red-faced, hugging his arms around himself as if he was cold. Aqua was staring at her feet with her hands clamped over her mouth, her cheeks crimson.

"Are you guys okay?" Ven called. Terra winced. Aqua gasped and looked up, her eyes filling with tears.

"Oh, Ven!" She ran to him and knelt, taking his arms gently in her hands. "I...I hurt you...Ven, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," he mumbled. "The seventh gate tries to make you crazy. Really, I'm okay. Watching you licking Terra like that was way worse."

She gave a little shriek of mortification and seized him, hiding her face against his shoulder. Ven looked at Terra, who made a noise like "Gah!" and turned his own face away.

"Terra," Aqua moaned into Ven's sleeve, "I am so, so, so, so sorry..."

"I'm the one who should be saying that," Terra ground out. "I tried to _kill_ you. Aqua, ask me to do _anything_ to make it up to you and then tell me to move to another country, I totally deserve it. You too, Ven. Ugh, I should just go drown myself..."

"No," Aqua wailed, "no, it wasn't your fault, I don't know what came over me, I'm so embarrassed I want to crawl into a hole and never come out again..."

"Guys, I told you, it was the gate," Ven insisted. "None of us were in our right minds. We're just lucky we made it out of there without tearing each other to bits."

Terra peeped out from behind his bangs and gave Ven a very small smile. "Nice going, by the way. You saved us again."

"I don't know how we would have been able to make it through all these gates alone," Ven said softly. "I'm...I'm really glad that you guys are with me." Aqua hugged him, her face still hidden.

"You know, Aqua...I really don't mind what you did," Terra mumbled. "I'm...well, you already know I l-like you, so...I mean, not that I'm gonna try anything because of it, I know you weren't thinking straight, but...uh, I didn't mind."

"But I do!" she wailed.

"Would it make it better if you guys started dating?" Ven suggested.

"Nooooo!" Then, immediately, "Yeeessss! But not right now! Oh, I can't believe I did that! Ohhhhh, why did I do that?"

"You were kissing him back when he started making out with you. I think you actually like Terra," Ven mused.

"Nooooo!"

Oddly enough, recovering from the embarrassment of the seventh gate took longer than recovering from the physical damage caused by all the previous ones. Eventually, however, they all got to their feet and wearily agreed to continue. Ven firmly took Aqua's and Terra's hands and clasped them together. Terra coughed to hide his feelings and Aqua still refused to look at either of them, but she did not pull away.

o.o.o.o.o

The eighth gate was a solid field of wild flames. The three of them stared at it in dismay.

Ven, however, had doubts about it actually being that difficult. He looked around. He smiled a little, and let out a quiet sigh of relief. The Vanitas and Sora from the sixth gate might have been illusions, but there was no way of telling if everything they said had been lies or not.

"Guys." He gently let go of Aqua's hand and stepped back. "I need you to go through this gate without me."

Their heads whipped around to stare at him. "What?"

"No way!"

"Please trust me," he said firmly. "I'll catch up to you on the other side, I promise."

"But, Ven-"

"Please, Aqua. I really need you two to go together ahead of me."

There was a long pause. Then Terra gently tipped her chin up until she was looking into his face for the first time since they had crossed the threshold of the seventh gate. Her cheeks flooded with color again, but her eyes did not leave his. He smiled, then leaned forward and laid a soft kiss on her cheek, near the corner of her mouth. "It will be all right," he whispered.

She nodded, and tightened her grip on his hand.

"You'll need to run," Ven said. "Whatever happens, run. _Whatever_ happens, okay? Good or bad. Don't stop running."

"Ven-"

"Scream a lot, too. Scream as hard as you can, even if you think you don't have to." Xehanort may or may not be spying, but Ven did not want to take any chances.

"What?"

"Ven, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Please trust me," he whispered. After a moment, Aqua leaned over to hug him, and Terra shot him a brave smile. Then the two of them shared a look and flung themselves into the fire.

Ven watched them go, nodded in satisfaction, then turned toward the approaching figure. "Axel...I'm really glad to see you."

"Oh, are you?" the fire sprite said dryly.

"I...I thought you might have been Dusked."

"Hmph. Xehanort can't get rid of me that easily. I'm too useful, for one thing."

Ven smiled sadly. "Axel?"

"What."

"Thank you. For everything."

Axel looked away, tousling his own hair restlessly. "Aw, now don't get all sappy."

"Maybe...you can come back with us?"

"Dream on," Axel snorted. "Live in the humans' ugly iron-and-concrete prison world? I don't think so."

"Okay. Maybe I'll see you sometimes, though. When you're on missions or something."

"Yeah, probably."

"...Okay." There seemed to be nothing left to say. Ven nodded, then turned and headed for the gate.

"Oi, Ven!"

He paused and turned back, grinning a little.

Axel seemed fidgety and uncomfortable, looking everywhere but at him. "Hey, I'm...I'm glad you're not dead."

"...I'm glad that you're glad I'm not dead." The guilt about Sora's sacrifice was still strong.

Axel glanced at him, finally offering a small smile. "Thanks. For everything. It's because of you I'm still here and not lying somewhere in the Gravelands."

Ven nodded. "Guess we're even, then."

"Nah, you still owe me. I won't quit bugging you 'til you pay up."

"Good. Because I'd be sad if I never saw you again."

"I told you, no sappy stuff," Axel grumbled.

Ven laughed, then turned away again and plunged into the eighth gate. The whole way across, he covered his head with his arms and screamed as if in direst agony, though in truth, his main problem was trying to elude the fire nymphs who kept reaching for him. He had to get Aqua and Terra home, he shouldn't waste time on dancing.

He felt breathless and relieved by the time he got to the other side and Aqua glomped him. "You're all right!"

"Of course I'm all right, I told you I would be."

"What was the deal with that gate?" Terra started to ask in confusion. "You told us to scream our heads off, but it didn't even-"

Ven glared, putting a finger to his lips. Luckily, Terra got the hint. "Pretty wild gate, huh," Ven murmured.

"Uh...yeah, I guess so?"

They began to approach the ninth gate, but then Ven paused. "Can you guys dance?"

"Huh?"

"You don't have to dance good, but it helps if you can."

"What are you talking about?"

"You need to sing, too."

"Ven, what does dancing and singing have to do with the giant lake that's rolling around in there?"

"Just a hunch. If it works, it'll be _way_ easier."

They entered the gate. The energetic mass of water paused, then surged straight toward them. "Get ready to swim!" Terra called. He and Aqua gripped each other's hands tightly and held their breaths.

Ven began to boogie, shouting out at the top of his surprisingly tuneful voice. _"Faster and faster, fast it goes! Playing the sitar with my toes. Hutalahey, hutalahey, hutalahey, oh, oheyoh! I like my sitar! I like my sitar! I play the sitar, sitar, wherever I go! Oheyoh!"_

Terra and Aqua stared at him as if he had gone absolutely bonkers.

"You, too!" Ven yelled. "Hurry! The funnier, the better!"

Terra looked at the towering wave, which had come to a complete halt and was now curled down at the top, as if studying Ven curiously. Then Terra swallowed and began to sing the first thing that came to his mind. _"I'm a Barbie girl in the Barbie world. Life in plastic - it's fantastic! You can brush my hair, undre-"_ His face flooded with color as he remembered the seventh gate. "Gah, I can't do this!"

"_Sing_, Terra," Ven demanded. Then, realizing that he himself had stopped singing and the wave was getting restless, _"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!"_

Terra groaned. _"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"_

_"Fighting evil by moonlight,"_ Aqua tried, since anxiety had made her forget _every single other song she knew_ except the birthday song...which, actually, probably would have been a better choice. _"Winning love by daylight. Never running from a real fight-"_

Terra was staring at her. "Sailor Moon?" he said in disbelief.

"SpongeBob SquarePants?" she shot back.

"...Touché."

_"I don't want another pretty face, I don't want just anyone to hold."_ Ven waved his arms at them impatiently. _"I don't want my love to go to waste, I want you and your beautiful soul."_

_"Estuans interius ira vehementi - Sephiroth!"_

_"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..."_

The wave came crashing down on top of them.

Aqua screamed, before she realized that she was being glomped rather than drowned. Water nymphs whirled around them in droves, laughingly dragging them into crazy dances.

"Ven?" Terra called nervously, trying to fend off a couple of giggling sprites who seemed to be attempting to feel him up. It was difficult, since his hands passed right through them, though theirs were gelatinously solid.

"Play nice," Ven called back. He jerked back from a nymph who tried to kiss him, and she squeezed his throat gently, but insistently. He gulped and tried to sing again. _"Gosh, it disturbs me to see you, Gaston, looking so down in the dumps..."_ She laughed and wrapped him in a very wet hug.

The entire sea of sprites acted enchanted with all three travelers, though they seemed to be particularly in love with Aqua. She nearly drowned several times as they swarmed over her. Terra and Ven fought their way over and dragged her along, half dancing and half swimming. By the time they made it out of the gate, they were hoarse, soaked to the skin, and exhausted, so they spent a while resting together before steeling themselves for the next ordeal.

"What's this one?" Terra asked tiredly.

"Time," was the dull reply. "This one could end pretty badly, though we won't know for sure 'til we get home..."

Yet it turned out to be completely different than what he was expecting.

The tenth gate was completely black, until they stepped into it. Then the entire field was suddenly illuminated, the ground shifted, and they looked down to find that the whole place had been covered by a pattern of squares. "It...almost looks like...Command Board," Terra said hesitantly.

Ven swallowed. "I think it is. Be careful, though. This won't be the fun version."

Something bounced up to them; Aqua gave a little shriek before she realized that it was just a die: a large one, with their school's crest on the side with the number one.

"Who wants to go first?" Ven asked. "I can, if you want," he added quickly, not wanting to look like he was avoiding danger.

"Unless Aqua wants the first roll for some reason, then I'll do it," Terra asserted.

"You can go," she murmured.

He took a deep breath and rolled the die.

At first, it seemed normal enough, until they realized that they were playing for health instead of GP. The first time Terra landed on a Damage Panel, he yelled as if it had burned him. Any time one of them landed on another's panel, some of their _wounds_ actually transferred - Ven's bite marks ended up on Aqua's arms, the scratches on Aqua's back moved to Terra's, Terra's bruises were divided up among the other two... They helped each other as much as possible, trying not to steal the prize cube or buy too many panels, opting instead to get as much GP as they could from the checkpoints.

"Does anyone know what the goal is?" Aqua called raggedly at one point.

"Not really," Ven whimpered, wiping sweat from his brow. "Just that it'll probably be a multiple of 3, 7, or 13."

"Is it making anyone else nervous that the Start Panel is way at the beginning of the gate?" Terra said uneasily.

"There will be a way through...there always is," Ven said, sounding like he was trying to convince himself.

Aqua won first, at which point she was offered a choice of two portals. "Any suggestions, Ven?" she called nervously.

"Unfortunately, no...I think it's pure luck."

She swallowed and chose the portal on the right, which transported her to the far end of the gatefield.

"All right, Aqua!" Terra cheered in relief as she stepped free. "Man, do I even _want_ to know what would have happened if she'd picked the wrong door?"

"Probably not," Ven said.

They found out, however, when Ven won second place and chose wrong. His time was rewound so that he was forced to begin the game again, this time with a damage penalty. Terra made up a lot of interesting profanity when they figured out what had happened. "It's okay, Terra," Ven said tiredly. "At least I don't remember playing the first time, so it won't be as frustrating for me..."

By the time her boys had joined her at the end of the tenth gate, Aqua hugged them both for a long time. "How many more?" she whispered.

"Two...just two...if we can just hold on through two more gates..."

o.o.o.o.o

"Well, at least it's pretty," Aqua commented.

"The prettiest ones are probably the most dangerous. Let's hold hands again," Ven said apprehensively. "Don't look at anything, make sure nothing's sneaking up on you..."

It was a wonderland of flowers, huge beautiful blossoms and tiny delicate fronds. Aqua admired one particularly vivid orange bloom until Terra suddenly yanked her back just in time. A cloud of noxious gas burst forth, and Ven, who had been caught in it briefly before stumbling free, coughed violently. Terra snatched him up just before a thorny vine curled around the boy's ankle.

"Can we run?" Aqua whimpered.

"We won't be able to see what's coming if we run. We'll walk quickly," Terra reasoned.

They continued on, trying not to look at any of the bright colors, and simultaneously trying to keep an eye out. Terra brushed restlessly at an itch on his arm and was startled when he suddenly could not pull away.

"Terra!" Aqua cried, jerking him aside just as more globs of sticky sap came dripping down from a patch of flowers that had twined into the branches of a tree.

"I can't get my hand off my arm!"

By the time Aqua had summoned her Keyblade and figured out how to produce enough water to get Terra unstuck, Ven's efforts to fend off the creeping vines were flagging. Their feet were ensnared, and tendrils had wrapped around their arms and were reaching for their necks as well.

"Haah!" Aqua drove her Keyblade down, snapping the vines, which gushed sticky red sap like blood. Terra tore free on brute strength and reached to release Ven with his bare hands.

"I want to run now," Ven pleaded.

They linked hands again and plunged headlong into the jungle. They made it almost to the border before a monstrous figure reared up in their path, a huge plant with an enormous fanged _mouth_, and what seemed like hundreds of little goggling eyes.

"Any chance we can reason with it?" Terra said dryly.

"No," Ven whispered. "It's only sentient enough to want to kill us."

"I'll try using fire," Aqua decided.

"Yeah, that's pretty much its only weakn-"

Aqua screamed as the nightmare plant suddenly spit a foul-smelling stream of liquid, hitting her straight in the eyes. "I can't see!" she screamed. "_I can't see!_ Get it off! Please, Terra, get it off, it's burning me!"

Ven was frantic. Fire, fire, needed fire, no way to start one, no magic, completely empty of everything except light and wind, he had nothing-

_"You can borrow mine if you want, Roxas,"_ Axel whispered into his mind. _"I can't help you directly, and it's not like they won't know anyway, but at least they won't be able to trace it if you steal it from me."_

Ven nearly sobbed in relief, babbling the ritual words without a trace of hesitation. _"Axel, I owe you, I am in your debt-"_

_"Yeah, whatever. Just shut up and take it."_

Even if he were dying, Ven could never have dreamed of doing such a thing without permission, but now he reached out and drew upon the other fae's power, temporarily draining it. _"I command you, Reno, to submit your magic to my control."_ He raised his hands. Streams of flame burst out of them, flaring against the surface of the monster. Even then, it took a minute for the tough green skin to ignite, but when it finally did, the plant writhed and screeched, its tentacles flailing wildly.

"Run for it!" Ven shouted. He dashed for the border, Terra carrying Aqua and running right behind him.

Once free, they laid her on the ground and tried to clear her eyes, but the stuff had hardened and she was still screaming in pain. Ven looked at his friend in desperation. "Terra...your Keyblade, you don't know any water spells for it, do you?" After a few tries, they gave up in frustration. Terra, as a human, could only perform spells that his Keyblade specialized in, since he had no magic of his own and did not have a propensity to it like Aqua did.

"Maybe... Terra, it's gonna hurt again if you let me, but - can I try?"

Terra immediately handed over his heart's blade and then tried not to make a sound as Ven drew upon its power.

Even when they finally managed to flush out her eyes and stop the acid from damaging her, Aqua stared sightlessly and began to cry, though she tried hard not to. "I still can't see. Am I...going to be blind forever?"

"I think it's temporary," Ven said shakily. "And I can give you my last Potion, that might help a little." He tried splitting the contents of the bottle between both of his friends, but Terra insisted that they give it all to Aqua. After drinking it, she said dispiritedly that her vision was not completely black anymore, but she still looked like a wreck.

"I'll carry her," Terra decided.

"You can't," Aqua murmured. "You're hurt."

"I'm _fine_. Here, see if you can climb onto my back."

The twelfth gate was a nightmare. Battered as they were, they had to stay alert and nimble. The gatefield's skies were black and pouring rain, and only a brief flash warned them whenever a bolt of lightning was about to strike. Ven, swift and agile, took to shoving the others out of the way as he dodged in the opposite direction. Terra was immensely grateful for this, since his reflexes were not quite as quick, especially since he was bearing Aqua's weight. It was a long, harrowing, painful trek before they managed to tumble out on the other side, where the older two collapsed and lay as if dead.

After they had rested for a while, Ven ventured fearfully, "Guys? Do you think you can make it a few more steps, just to the next gatefield?"

"It'll kill us," Terra sighed. "I don't know if I have enough strength left for another one."

Aqua simply whimpered and curled up.

"The thirteenth gate is mine," Ven coaxed. "For all practical purposes, we're done. Please...rest a little, then see if you can get up again. It's just a few more steps, I promise."

The final gatefield was full of light too bright to see anything, yet it was not painful. It felt soothing to their ravaged bodies, and all their pain and fear and anxiety seemed to melt away. They emerged on the other side feeling cleansed and whole.

"I like that gate best," Aqua decided, making the boys laugh.

A winged figure swooped down at them. For a second, Ven's heart leaped as he thought that it might be Sora, alive after all, but the Guardian was a girl with red hair and an infectious laugh. "You made it! Oh, I'm so _proud_ of you!" she cried happily. She hugged Ven and then Aqua, and grinned at Terra, who self-consciously crossed his arms over his bare chest before she giggled and made a loose white shirt appear for him out of nowhere.

Another Guardian approached as well. "Good work."

"It's you!" Terra exclaimed, recognizing the winged young man from his vision in the Unseelie court.

"You know them, Terra?" Aqua said in surprise.

"They're Sora's partners," Ven whispered, his head drooping in shame. He fell to his knees.

"Now, don't do that," Kairi scolded. "Sora only did what any of us might do. He's your Guardian, after all."

"He's never coming back," Ven murmured. "All because of me."

"Hmph. I refuse to believe he's gone for good," Kairi huffed. "After all, his heart is still alive. Even if it takes a thousand years, I _know_ I'll see him again."

"It won't be nearly that long," Riku pointed out. "Ven's pretty much mortal now, and Sora's heart will probably be released when Ven dies."

"You don't have to _say_ it like that, you meanie!" she exclaimed.

"It's okay," Ven said. "I was hoping it would be like that."

"Who are you, anyway?" Aqua asked.

"I'm Kairi! Now that Riku's taken Terra and Sora has Ven, can I be your Guardian, Aqua?"

"I...well...what does that mean?"

"We're bound to the worlds," Riku explained, "and to people with great influence on them. We guide, protect, and maintain. Not all of us are cooperative, but Sora and Kairi and I all fight for the Light. Just because we're forced to be good doesn't mean we should try _not_ to be."

"So does that mean you're good guys?" Terra wondered.

Riku grinned. "More or less."

Kairi elbowed him. "Of _course_ we are." She smiled at Aqua. "Please let me be your Guardian. You wound up your fate with Terra's and Ven's, which means I'd get to stay with Riku a little longer. And with Sora, or what remains of him," she added in a slightly more subdued voice.

"All right," Aqua agreed hesitantly.

"Yay! Thank you! Now, before Baldinort over there tries to cheat _yet again_..." She kissed Aqua on the forehead, then each of the boys. "There. The seal of your trials."

"Xehanort went too far trying to kill you," Riku explained. "He failed, and now all three of you are more of a threat to him than ever."

"Henceforth," Kairi declared ceremonially, "Ventus is forever free from all fey courts unless he willingly and whole-heartedly swears allegiance again, and the three of you, by successfully conquering the thirteen gates, have free access to and from Faerie forever. You can even eat their food now," she added, much less ceremonially. "You should try Lexaeus's sweets sometime, they are _so good_."

"We are never coming to Faerie again," Aqua said decisively.

"Yeah, I think I've had my fill of all magical crazy people, except this one," Terra agreed, clapping Ven on the shoulder. "And you two, of course. Thanks for everything."

"Thank _you_, for catching Ven - and then for keeping him even though he turned out to be so much trouble," Riku said. "If Eraqus had gotten hold of him, or if he'd been sacrificed as teind, this world would have been destroyed."

"What?"

"Really?"

"You're an important person, Little Wind," Kairi told him warmly. "Keep Sora's heart safe, okay?"

Ven laid his hand over his chest and nodded. "I will."

_To be concluded..._

Author's Notes: I'm not happy with this chapter, especially the end...

MOST FUN GATES TO WRITE! Nine and - Seven. *sweatdrop* Seven was _ridiculous_ and horrible, but it still makes me laugh.

Gate 9's quotes were from: "My Sitar" by Dr. Bombay (Demyx's fanon theme song ^_^), "Barbie Girl" by Aqua (the Danish-Norwegian dance-pop group, not the KH character, ha ha), "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" by Duke Ellington, the SpongeBob SquarePants television show's theme song, the theme song for DiC's English dub of the Sailor Moon anime, "Beautiful Soul" by Jesse McCartney (couldn't resist :p), "One-Winged Angel" from Final Fantasy VII, the traditional American birthday song, and "Gaston" from Disney's _Beauty and the Beast_ movie.


	5. Epilogue

_**Little Wind**_**, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl**

**Epilogue**

_"Let's talk more, and about the tomorrow that's before your very eyes."_

o.o.o

One night, a few months later, a red-haired figure materialized out of nowhere, his black cloak making him difficult to see in the dark. He walked up to the nearby house where a winged Guardian sat watch, staring at something through a window.

"Guard duty's boring as heck, huh," Axel commented.

Kairi turned and smiled at him. "I was actually sent to dispatch a Night Mare halfway across town, but it's not against the rules to make a little side-trip before going home, right?"

He shrugged. "Not like I'm gonna tattle on you or anything."

"Ven looks so much like Sora, sometimes I can't help just staring at him...sometimes I'm really glad he can't see me..."

Axel raised an eyebrow.

"Obviously I wouldn't watch him when he wants privacy! I don't even have much time to, anyway. It's just, like now, when he's nearby and he's just sleeping... He acts like Sora now, you know. He rubs the back of his head when he's embarrassed the exact same way, and he's a little flightier than he used to be." She sighed. "I miss Sora."

"Looks like we've got something in common, then," Axel muttered, sitting down on the roof beside her.

"You and I both miss someone we care about," Kairi said softly.

He looked away. "We fae aren't supposed to have hearts. We don't 'care' about anyone."

"So your pact with Ven was all business, was it?"

"...Why would he do something like that, Kairi? Why would he risk so much for me when there was nothing to gain, and then not even take advantage of my name when I'd paid him with it?"

She smiled again. "Ven's an important person. He's special."

"Yeah. I think I'm finally starting to see what all the fuss is about."

When Kairi was gone, Axel tapped on the window until Ven stirred and sleepily opened his eyes. The boy sat up at once and bounded over to open the window. "Axel!"

"Yo."

Ven climbed out and sat down next to him. "I know it hasn't been nearly as long for you, but I've been worried."

"I can handle myself."

"Did Xehanort figure out how much you helped us?"

"He had no proof. And I told you, I can handle myself."

Ven studied his friend intently, then finally smiled. "Yeah, I know you can."

"Better than you, anyway."

"Hey!"

"You're too much of a softie, and you know it."

"Talk about the pot calling the kettle black..."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, what do you think it means?"

Axel frowned. "You're treading dangerous ground, calling the Unseelie king's assassin _soft_."

"Well, I won't if it'll get you in trouble."

Axel shook his head. "Clueless idiot..." He sighed and dropped the subject. "So, you're obviously still living here. I assume Aqua's parents took to you?"

"I mean, they weren't exactly thrilled at first, but Aqua legally adopted me as soon as she turned eighteen." He pouted. "I stopped growing as soon as I returned to Faerie. But anyway, I've been behaving myself. Her parents kind of love me now. Heh, Aqua's mom treats me like I'm six, but I don't mind much. It's better than them kicking me out."

"Them puppy eyes of yours don't help, I bet," Axel teased.

"Oi, lay off..."

Axel paused. "You all still going to the same school?"

"Yeah," Ven said shortly. That had not been pleasant, discovering that Arture High sat right on top of an Unseelie node. No wonder its crest was actually the symbol of the dark court. "But the undercover fae leave us alone."

"I bet they do," Axel muttered, eyeing Kairi's invisible seal. No ordinary fae would dare hassle someone who had overcome all thirteen gates. "So what about university plans?"

"She got accepted to Seidon. I'm gonna move with her and go to school over there 'til I graduate."

"Long distance relationship, then?"

"Yeah...Terra's starting at a community college here so he can help out his parents, but hopefully he'll be able to join us in a couple of years."

Axel shook his head. "Time passes so quickly in this realm...how do you stand it?"

"We don't even notice the difference," Ven explained. "Time is time. It feels normal. How long has it been for you?"

"...A week or so."

Ven's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Sorry."

"What, you're like Luxord now? You can make time run backwards and stop yourself from getting old and _dying_?"

"Axel...I...I don't know how to explain it. Ever since I came to Earth...I haven't been afraid of dying anymore."

"..."

"Mortality's not so bad. I've met Aqua's grandparents, and Terra's. They're all really sweet. There's _no one_ like them in Faerie. I'm...almost...looking forward to getting to be like them."

"Sicko."

Ven laughed. "I guess I can't expect you to understand."

Axel glared off into the distance. "Yeah, rub it in that you're a completely different order of being now."

"Are you mad at me?"

Axel slammed his fist onto the shingles and turned his fiery glare onto Ven. "Yeah, I am, actually."

Ven gazed into his eyes. _'You look more afraid than angry.'_ "You know, if I were to become a fae again and live forever, Sora would be _gone_ forever, too."

"I don't care about Sora."

"Well, I do." Ven laid a hand over his own chest. "I decided. I'm going to find a way to free him. I don't want to wait until I'm dead...I miss him. He was my friend. He didn't deserve to give up so much for me."

Axel stared at him. "Kid, you're talking about fighting _Guardians_. Did turning mortal also make you insane?"

"I'm sure that Kairi and Riku will help me," Ven said. "They want Sora back even more than I do. And I've...I've talked to Naminé. A lot of this mess is her fault, but she's not...evil, like everyone wants to think she is. I'm sure she'll help, too."

Axel sighed. "Well, maybe I'd better warn you, then. If you try to get yourself killed for this guy, I'm gonna fight you every step of the way. Because in case you forgot, Sora's heart is the only reason you're still _breathing_."

"I'll find a way," Ven said confidently. "Sora was trying to figure out how to fix me and Vanitas all that time. He was halfway there; if he hadn't gotten...interrupted, he could have done it, eventually. Someday, I'll be whole again, and so will Sora."

"Well, good luck, then. You're gonna need it, if you're planning to forge ahead with me standing in your way."

Ven laughed. "I'm looking forward to the challenge."

"This isn't a game."

"Aren't all things a game to the fae?"

"Then maybe you're somewhat oblivious to the stakes involved."

"Nope. Life or death."

"At least wait 'til Aqua's all grown up and wrinkly," Axel said persuasively. "Won't it be hard to leave her when she's still pretty?"

"Aqua and Terra are going to help, too. Didn't you see their Keyblades? They may not have any magic of their own, but they've gotten pretty good at using their blades' specialties. They're the most un-useless humans I've ever met."

"Roxas, you can be an infuriating little punk sometimes."

"You're really sweet, Reno."

"Shut up."

Ven laughed. "Well, since apparently we're gonna be enemies once you leave, you want to have one last ice cream with me?"

"Hmph. Only if you've got sea-salt."

"What, you doubt me? Two sea-salt ice creams, coming right up." Ven hopped back through the window and headed down to the kitchen.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: I drafted this story back in the summer (before CatC, ftr) just because, while in the middle of playing _Birth by Sleep_ for the first time, I decided that I wanted to write a specifically BBS-focused fic. This is the idea I came up with. I love this trio, especially the boys... Though Axel started shoving his way onscreen after a while, most likely because I was playing _358/2 Days_ again during the drafting. The Guardians were TOTALLY unplanned. Riku & Sora just thought it would be fun to be sempai to the BBS trio, instead of the other way around.

Lol, Ven was originally supposed to be an alien, but as I was writing the fic, things changed and I ended up with yet another Kingdom Hearts Faerie AU (there's more that I haven't finished/posted yet). KH is just made for Fairyland.

If the backstory cooperates, I might try to write an epic companion fic from Sora's POV. If not, though, I think this story can still stand on its own.


End file.
